PATRICK EBERT: On Assignment

Detwiler Pitches up to His Potential

MINNEAPOLIS--Missouri State traveled here to play the Minnesota Golden Gophers on the second Friday of March, and I was fortunate enough to take the game in. On the mound for the Missouri State Bears was talented lefthanded pitcher Ross Detwiler, who entered the spring as a probable first-round pick for this upcoming June’s draft, particularly after his impressive campaign pitching for Team USA last summer.

Minnesota’s Gary Perinar was expected to oppose Detwiler, but Minnesota coach John Anderson decided to start junior righthander Ethan Vogt, holding Perinar for Saturday’s contest. While several scouts expressed their disappointment in not being able to see the expected Detwiler-Perinar marquee matchup, many planned to return on Saturday to see Perinar pitch.

It turns out that both of the marquee pitchers in this series took a loss, with Perinar getting roughed up opposing Missouri State ’s other talented starter, Scott Carroll, who pitched seven scoreless innings in the second game of the series.

Friday night’s game started very promising for Detwiler, who looked very good in the bullpen warming up, showing his easy, effortless delivery and his ability to maintain his arm speed between his low-90s fastball and sharp, yet slurvy curveball. His first warm-up toss from the mound registered 89 mph on the radar guns that surrounded me, followed by 91 and 92. The breaking balls he snapped off before the game started were clocked in the upper 70s.

The first pitch of the game, a fastball, came in at 92. Several scouts (of which there were approximately 20 in attendance) were turning their heads and sharing a few murmured comments amongst one another while cross-checking their radar gun readings.

Minnesota center fielder Matt Nohelty, the first batter of the game, struck out looking on a nasty 78 curveball. For the second batter of the game, Gophers shortstop Dan Lyons, Detwiler mixed in a steady dose of breaking pitches, and unleashed his changeup that almost literally caused scouts’ collective jaws to drop. I have read many comments about Detwiler’s inconsistent changeup before, and if he keeps showing the one he did in the early innings on Friday night all spring long, he is quickly going to erase those concerns.

Detwiler ended up walking Lyons , the only walk Detwiler would issue until the eighth inning, on a breaking ball. Detwiler touched 93 in the first, working consistently in the 91-92 range with his fastball, which is consistent with the reports I had heard of his previous two performances, and he sat at 78 with his breaking ball.

His changeup, in particular, was an impressive pitch. Like his curveball, it was thrown with the exact same arm speed and angle as his fastball, only to dip and dive and arrive at the plate milliseconds after his fastball normally would. Its easy to see how his repertoire alone will enable Detwiler to be successful at the next level, as the difference in speeds and his command of a low-90s fastball, a low-80s changeup and an upper-70s breaking ball are just one of the many reasons why this young man is being considered for the first-round.

His arm action, as noted, is so incredibly easy and effortless, and there is a fair amount of deception to his delivery as he rotates slightly away from the batter and delivers the ball from a low three-quarters arm angle. At 6-foot-4 and 175 pounds, Detwiler is rail thin, with a high waist, broad shoulders and long, rangy limbs. As he continues to fill out his body and gets on a major league conditioning and strength program, he should have no problem maintaining his current velocity—if he doesn’t manage to add a few ticks to his heater along the way.

Detwiler cruised through six innings, facing just one batter over the minimum, thanks to two conventional double plays and a strikeout/throw-out double play in the second inning. During that time he allowed only two hits, one of which was a bunt single, no runs, the walk to Lyons in the first and he struck out five, three of which came looking on his nasty curve. The only hard-hit ball off Detwiler was a single to left field by Gophers right fielder Kyle Baran in the fifth inning.

Things changed quickly in the seventh inning, however, when Detwiler gave up back-to-back hard hits to Lyons and Mike Mee to lead off the frame. Lyons was erased at third base on a fielder’s choice, but an error by second baseman Matt Lawson, his second of the game, allowed the first run of the game to score. Detwiler induced another weak chopper that created another fielder’s choice, but then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the second run of the inning to score. Both were unearned. Visibly upset, Detwiler recorded the final out of the inning as first baseman Bryan Jost swung through a 92 mph fastball.

Despite the fact that the Gophers scored two runs in the seventh, Detwiler did a very nice job recovering from opening the frame with the two hard-hit balls. It was the first inning in which he had to pitch around some adversity. His pitch count was starting to creep up to the point where many observers close to me thought we wouldn’t see much more of him. That thought was strengthened when the Bears had a long inning of their own offensively in the top of the eighth. While they failed to score, they nearly snuck ahead when third baseman Brayden Drake hit a ball deep to left-center field with two runners on that Nohelty tracked down for the final out of the inning.

So, after a long seventh inning and a long time sitting on the bench during the top of the eighth, Detwiler returned to the mound with absolutely no activity in the Missouri State bullpen. What seemed painfully obviously to me and the scouts (and even a few of the fans) sitting around me was not as obvious to Missouri State head coach Keith Guttin. In Guttin’s defense, Detwiler is his staff ace and it’s not like his velocity had wavered.

Unfortunately for the Bears, the observations of those around me were dead-on as Detwiler should never have taken the mound in the eighth inning. He walked the first batter he faced, pinch hitter Tijl Vanderwege, and the third hitter, Nohelty, before allowing an RBI single to Lyons on a hard-hit ball to right field. He did strike out pinch-hitter Jeremy Chlan looking, in between Vanderwege and Nohelthy, but the long seventh inning and the long layoff in the top of the eighth clearly had taken their toll on his command.

His fastball dipped a little bit as well, as I saw the first reading that dropped below 90 on the evening, and his breaking ball, which was clocked consistently at 78 all game prior to the eighth inning, sat in the 73-75 range. He also started to rely on his breaking ball more, clearly not trusting the command of his fastball. He was removed with runners on first and third with one out, and one of those runners ended up scoring. In total, he worked 7 1/3 innings, allowing five hits, four runs (two earned) and three walks while striking out six.

Just for the record of playing armchair quarterback, his line should have been a more tidy seven innings pitched, four hits, two runs (zero earned), one walk and six strikeouts.

Another encouraging trend for those trying to project Detwiler’s future success is the number of ground balls he induced in Friday’s contest. I have read several reports this off-season that suggests the most successful pitchers in the big leagues are those that not only have a knack for missing bats with the strikeout, but those that are more likely to induce ground balls vs. fly balls. Basically, it’s not only about how hard the pitcher is to hit, but how hard it is to hit the pitcher hard.

Of the 12 outs that were recorded by Detwiler’s defense on balls put into play, nine of those came on balls hit on the ground (and both errors by Lawson were on routine ground balls). It should also be pointed out that he has given up only one extra-base hit so far this season in three appearances. Clearly, Detwiler is one of the toughest pitchers in the nation to hit, with nine hits allowed in 21-plus innings of work. 

It’s hard not to like Detwiler, a tall and incredibly projectable lefthander who sat in the 91-92 mph range with his fastball, touching 93 and dipping below 90 only once. Both his curveball and changeup are very good secondary offerings, which gives him a very well-rounded and perfectly-balanced arsenal. It’s hard to get too critical of his bad inning since it seemed clear that he shouldn’t have even been allowed to start the eighth inning. But since he did, there are a few questions about his durability given how he lost the command of his fastball and the velocity on his breaking ball. Tossing seven strong innings in early March, albeit indoors, is nothing to sneeze at, and I don’t think anyone doubts his ability to add strength as his body matures.

I think the scouts that came to see Detwiler saw exactly what they had seen of him before, possibly with the exception of the development of his changeup in game situations. He entered the game as a legitimate first-round pick, and didn’t do anything that hurt his standing.

The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA . Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.