In Part I of the six part series on covering the 2009 Draft, I gave brief scouting reports over the well-known names in amateur baseball. Strasburg remains at the top and is having an unbelievable Junior year (.172 BAA, 74 K/7 BB in 34.1 IP). Part II features the top athlete in the draft followed by two very projectable arms and two pitchers that have experienced quite a bit of controversy within the past year.
6. Donovan Tate, OF, GA (HS)
7. Tyler Matzek, LHP, CA (HS)
Coming into college, he was a 6 foot tall shortstop with a lightning quick arm and no pitching experience. Three years later, he was the Bulldogs ace and a legit first rounder. With a fastball that has been clocked at 99 mph, he may have the best raw arm strength of anyone not named Stephen Strasburg.
It sits in the 92-96 range and has good command of it for such a high velocity pitcher. It has good downhill plane and heavy sink. He also made significant strides last year on an 86-87 mph slider with cutter action and a hard-spinning, downer 82-84 mph curveball with bite that is an average pitch when he gets out front with it. His changeup, clocked at 81-83 mph, is still in the development stage, but shows promise as a different look to hitters. He has a very projectable frame and being relatively new to pitching, he doesn’t have a lot of miles on his arm.
Despite suffering that partially torn labrum, which he was poorly used by his coach (throwing 136 pitches two days after closing out a game), he actually does have pretty clean arm action and timing. A lot is riding on his right shoulder, and if it’s truly healthy. His command was about average before the injury, so it may be a little shaky coming back. Some scouts would have liked to seen him come back to Fresno State for his senior year instead of facing inferior independent hitters, as he’s really only had one big year.
After his freshman season, he’s made incredible strides efficiency-wise, and really put himself on scouts radar after posting a 1.41 ERA and striking out 54 hitters in 45 IP in the Cape Cod League. He followed that with an All-American season his sophomore year, cutting down the walk totals and putting up a .211 BAA in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the nation (138 PF in Allie P. Reynolds Stadium).
He’s a very good athlete, complete with the perfect pitchers frame and work ethic to add some weight. He attacks hitters with a fastball that sits in the low-90’s, and can reach the mid-90’s if need be. He has great stamina, as he has been clocked consistently sitting the low-90’s in the 6th and 7th inning. He has the pitchability that’s expected for a college arm, and has used his velocity efficiently as he’ll set up hitters by pounding the low and inside corner and letting lose with mid-90’s heat when the counts in his favor. A big difference between his freshman and sophomore year was learning when to throw strikes and when to throw hittable balls.
He’s also posted solid ground ball ratios both years at OSU. He’s mainly been a fastball/change-up kind of guy so far, fooling hitters with good deceptio
n on the change-up. The critics have all claimed he’s primarily a two-pitch pitcher, and will need more than a get-me-over curveball to succeed at the professional level.
There would also be games last year where he had the yips, totally losing focus on the mound and the ability to hit his spots. He got away with a lot of high fastballs that more advanced hitters would take advantage of. His off-speed stuff has been effective thus far mainly because of it being a different look to hitters, rather than it being an effective pitch.
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