Adam Morgan has made impressive strides |
It’s been a pretty upsetting year for Phillies fans on all
fronts. Not only has an aging Major League roster provided the fan
base with perhaps 2012’s most disappointing season in all of sports but a farm
system bereft of elite talent doesn’t inspire much optimism for the
future. A small ray of light, peering out through the morass of injuries,
IronPigs and subtle radio caller racism, was recently brought up to
Reading. This faint but legitimate
photon, poking his head out from an obscure corner of an all time dumpster fire,
is young lefthanded pitcher, Adam Morgan.
Adam Morgan didn’t come into the season with much heat on him at
all. He wasn’t on Keith Law’s organizational top ten, he wasn’t on Kevin
Goldstein’s Future Shock top twenty and he barely made it on to Baseball
America’s top thirty, sneaking onto the Phillies’ list at number twenty nine,
seven spots behind his Crimson Tide rotation mate, Austin Hyatt. Something has
changed. No longer is Morgan, a third rounder from the 2011 draft, being
described as a “soft tossing, command and control guy.” He’s started missing bats,
more than one per inning, and forced his way up from Clearwater into a really
fun, prospect laden rotation at Double-A Reading. With the fan
base’s silver lining forty five minutes away from me, you know I made the drive
with my stopwatch and notebook.
What was cool about this scouting trip was the clean slate on
which I could conduct my analysis. I didn’t accidentally stumble upon any
opinions or reports on him because there just aren’t any yet, and I didn’t
actively seek any out before I saw him because I wanted to be surprised and
uncontaminated by anyone else’s ideas. I hopped in the car not knowing if Adam
Morgan was right handed, short, fat, black, handsome, blonde or cross eyed. It
made me all the more excited to see him and drink everything in. If you’re not into dry, vanilla, missionary
position type scouting reports then I’ll just tell you now that I like this kid
quite a bit and I think he’s going to be a useful big leaguer. Here are those
sentiments expressed in more detail….
The twenty two year old Morgan is not a jaw dropping physical
specimen. He’s in fine shape, but his 6’1” frame offers no positive
projection. What you see is what you’re going to get. If Morgan’s physique is going to change, it will
change horizontally. Let’s hope it doesn’t because sometimes guys who gain
weight have a hard time maintain the athleticism in their delivery, which right
now for Morgan is just fine. Morgan lands hard on a stiff front leg and there’s
a little bit of effort as he fires but nothing is so violent that I’m concerned
about repeatability or sustainable health. These sound mechanics help produce
above average control and average command of a slightly above average fastball
(I’ll put a 55 on it, 89-92mph) that plays up thanks to terrific movement. That movement, however, is inconsistent and
Morgan’s heater will get flat and straight at times. His somewhat diminutive stature prevents him
from getting natural downhill plane on his fastball which he left up in the
zone a handful of times on Tuesday. He got away with it because, hey, it’s
Double-A and Trenton’s lineup is pretty bad but that won’t fly in the big
leagues and Morgan will have to continue to hone in on the lower third of the
zone to avoid becoming homer prone.
The fastball is complimented by a plus changeup (60 but flashed
better three or four times), a true swing and miss pitch which consistently
made Thunder hitters look both uncomfortable and ridiculous. It is clear this is where Morgan has made
strides this year as his changeup was previously just a footnote on his scouting
report. The pitch sits in the upper 70s with lots of fade and action and, most
importantly, Morgan maintains his fastball’s arm speed when he throws it. I see
this as a weapon that will miss some bats in the big leagues one day.
Morgan has two breaking balls, a slider and a curve. The two can overlap a little but the hook
(30) will usually sit mid to upper 70s while the slider (45), which I like much
better, hangs out in the low 80s. Further
development of one of these pitches is crucial to Morgan’s future. He has an idea what to do with the slider, getting
a swing and miss or two at some back foot work against righties, but it needs
refining and I’d like to see him pitch backwards with it later in his starts to
get ahead of hitters with something new.
I’d love to get another look at Morgan before the season’s out
to better grasp the nuances of his craft.
After one look, I think the Phillies have stumbled upon a nice backend
starter who has a chance to be a solid mid-rotation guy if he improves even
just one or two of his current deficiencies.
Stick a feather in the cap of the Phillies’ player development staff.
been following morgan. he has good stuff. his era is good, his strike-outs are impressive and his control is getting better. look forward to seeing him at the big show middle of 2013
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