Over the course of the last five weeks I’ve hit a number of games. I’ve seen Worcester (Triple-A), Syracuse (Triple-A), New Hampshire (Double-A) and Hartford (Double-A) multiple times, as well as single looks on Portland (Double-A), Somerset (Double-A), Bowie (Double-A) and Buffalo (Triple-A). These are corresponding notes from each of these viewings with details obtained by my own eyes and velocities off the screen of my personal radar. I mention the latter detail because the old scouting adage never trust the stadium gun often rings true.
Today we’ll detail three starters I observed with some significant buzz. I will run through position players and relievers in a post later this week.
Alek Manoah, RHP Buffalo (Toronto Triple-A)
Date(s) observed: 5/19/2021
A 2019 first rounder I had initially been introduced to the first week of the 2018 Cape League season as he started for Chatham against a loaded Wareham club (Andrew Vaughn, Bryson Stott, Austin Shenton, etc). I took in a trio of Manoah starts that summer and was blown away by the sheer electricity of his stuff and magnetic personality. Since then, Manoah has slimmed down his XL frame, ridding himself of extra weight and improving his overall conditioning. He’s a big body at 6-foot-6 and 260 lbs, with broad, square shoulders and the general features you’d associate with a giant. Massive hands and feet, as well as a level of physical strength comparable to a strongman competitor.
He throws exclusively from the stretch with a simple step and throw motion. His arm action is moderate in length with significant arm speed delivering from a low ¾ slot. His operation has been streamlined as a professional as there’s less violence in his motion than there was as an amateur. That’s not to say he’s eliminated all effort from his motion. As you can see in the below video, there’s still a fair amount of effort at the point of release.
It’s technically a four-pitch mix if you account for the two variations of his fastball, as he throws both a four-seam and two-seam. As you’d anticipate, each pitch provides a different look while sitting in an identical velocity band, clocking in between 92-96 mph. His fastball flashes some ride but it’s only average to a tick above average when located high. The two-seamer is a sinker with late sink and heavy run armside. He’ll mix the two interchangeably but went to the sinker with greater frequency against left-handed hitters. His control of the pitch is above-average as he lived around the zone all night, as the misses weren’t bad. He showed a propensity to work east to west versus north to south. His command is only average as he will miss spots with both variations. Overall he located the pitch, sequenced well, and held his velocity into the sixth.
The epicenter of Manoah’s arsenal is his bread and butter slider. A low-80s sweeper with significant horizontal movement and little to no drop at all. He used it early and often getting swings and misses or takes for strikes. He generated ten swinging strikes on the pitch as it was a total enigma for right-handed batters all night. It may run into some split issues depending on command as it moves toward the barrel of left handed hitters. How left-handed hitters handle it at the next level is depend on command. However further development of his changeup can help that.
He showed the changeup early to left handed batters flashing two to start the game against Red Sox OF Jarren Duran. Much as it did down the Cape it flashed armside run and some parachute finish. It was however inconstant in shape and he tended to work primarily off his fastball+slider combo.
Overall a dominant look but one that wasn't without some flaws. Beyond all of his loud stuff and imposing build the most encouraging takeaway from this start was Manoah’s ability to pitch.
Simeon Woods-Richardson, RHP New Hampshire (Toronto Double-A)
Date(s) Observed: 5/16/2021 and 5/22/2021
Acquired in the Marcus Stroman trade from the Mets, Woods-Richardson is prodigious right-hander showing well in Double-A at just 20 years of age. Despite his youth, Woods-Richardson is filled out and may be close to physical max. He’s broad shouldered and thick and muscular. He’s every bit his listed height and weight of 6-foot-3, 210 lbs. He has long levers and above-average athleticism.
His operation is best described as unusual. He’s slow to the plate as the beginning of his semi-windup is done deliberately before firing his hips rapidly as he fires from over the top. It’s a longer arm action but his vertical slot plays up his stuff. Once he gets through the first half of his motion he gets downhill quickly as he drops and drives, landing to the first base side but it’s not a violent fall off.
Woods-Richardson mixes two variations of his fastball, with a four-seam in the 91-94 mph range, touching 95, and a two-seam in the 89-91 mph range. His two-seam features sink, which plays up due to the downhill plane his slot and release point created. While his four-seam shows ride and is used frequently in the upper quadrants. He commands both well to his gloveside, but struggles to locate with consistency armside. His misses were fairly close and he worked to all four quadrants showing strong command for the pitch.
He mixes a trio of secondaries but it’s primarily curveball and changeup. He’ll mix in a harder slider but I didn’t see it used with any frequency. His curveball is a slow 12-6 rainbow, sitting 75-77 mph. He looks to tunnel off of his four-seam, as it comes from a similar release point. It has a bit of a hump, which worries me it might be an easy take as he sees even more advanced hitters.
His changeup however showed good separation from the fastball and worked off both his four-seam and two-seam fastballs. Late parachuting movement and armside run he’d throw inside to lefties and let it run back over the plate. After taking in multiple starts I can pretty comfortably say it’s the better of the two. Even if the curveball is more aesthetically pleasing.
Overall Woods-Richardson has a starter’s build, command, and pitch mix. The velocity many have hoped he’d add hasn’t come to fruition but I’m not sure it needs to. While another few ticks wouldn’t hurt he has a level of pitchability right now that allows everything to work.
Grayson Rodriguez, RHP (Double-A Baltimore)
Date(s) Observed: 6/2/2021
A tall right-hander drafted early in the first round out of the Texas prep ranks. Rodriguez presents the total package of size, stuff, and pitchability. He dominated High-A competition to start the year and was promoted to Double-A prior to this start. He was gifted a weak Hartford lineup for this one, so the degree of difficulty wasn’t far off from a few of his High-A starts I’d gather.
His operation is clean with minimal effort, and a low release unique for a player for his size and length. He works for a semi-windup with a long whippy arm action, with plus arm speed, coming from a high ¾ slot. He repeats extremely well, and while I would deem him athletic, he does move well on the mound and has little trouble staying on time and in line with the plate.
His fastball is arguably the best pitch I’ve seen this year from a stuff and execution standpoint. He generates significant ride and run, getting a level of armside run typically of a two-seam while getting above-average ride of a four-seam. It sat 96-98 mph touching 99 twice. He dominated hitter with the pitch. Locating to all four quadrants landing armside and gloveside with efficiency. He used it as an out pitch in two-strike counts and generated more than a few swings and misses. The first time through the order he used his slider or changeup in two-strike counts as a put away pitch, but the second time through the order he consistently went to the fastball in two-strike counts, reaching back for 97 or 98 mph, blowing it by hitters.
His willingness to mess with sequencing and utilize the entirety of his pitch mix was impressive. Early on it was slider to right handers and the changeup to lefties, before flipping it the second time through. Rodriguez dove into his bag of tricks as he started to utilize the curveball against each handedness, and dropped a couple of right-on-right changeups. His slider sat 81 to 84 mph, mostly sitting 83-84, with tremendous horizontal break and little late dump. It was his best swing and miss pitch on the night, generating seven swings on 17 pitches, a 41% whiff for the night on the slider. His changeup was equally effective versus lefties, as it was deployed nine times getting three swinging strikes. He flashed a cutter, which seemed almost like a hybrid of his four-seam and slider, finding a nice middle ground, at 85 to 87 mph. He showed an above-average curveball as well in the low-80s with more vertical drop than his slider with some gloveside sweep late. It’s a very robust pitch mix, and one Grayson commands well.
Rodriguez was as advertised, as he showed elite level stuff, above-average command, and heady sequencing on all of his pitches. As mentioned the Hartford lineup is weak and I don’t feel like the presented much of a challenge in Grayson’s upper-minors debut. That said he has the stuff and pitchability to go toe to toe with anyone. His sequencing is advanced, and he efficiently threw strikes. He looks like a front of the rotation starter at the next level. One of the more impressive arms I’ve seen in the Eastern League the last three seasons.