Contemplating the Crawdads

I am pumped. Tonight will be the first night game that will have great
weather start to finish. I'll be leaving the coat at home for this one. Watch for observations from tonight's game.

Jason Cole had a cool Q&A with Jake Brigham (pictured, left). Check it out here. Brigham is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is off to an eye-opening start.

The 6"3", 210 lb Brigham has pitched 13.1 innings so far this year, allowing 2ER, walking 4, and striking out 14.

A taste:

"Jason Cole: I want to go back to your Spring Training. I was in Arizona during your first start out there, but it was on the road and I wasn’t able to see it. As I understand, you struggled with control a bit in that outing. Is that correct?

Jake Brigham: Yes, I was just a little excited and leaning forward a little bit. I was missing armside and up the whole time. But I made the adjustments before the next start.

Cole: So after that start you were pretty much good to go?

Brigham: I think it was just a bunch of nerves. It was my first time on the mound in a game in over a year and a half. But that next start I sort of got settled down"

--Also check out some Brigham comments from Rangers guru turned scout, Jason Parks here.

--Mike Hindman, who now applies his craft at D Magazine's Inside Corner Blog had this to say about Brigham before the big injury that sidelined him last year...

Brigham's draft status slipped in the weeks leading up to the 2006 draft and he fell to the sixth round. The Rangers stepped up and gave him fourth round money to bring him into the fold out of a small Florida high school. As a first year player in the AZL, Brigham posted a 3.70 ERA, fanning 58 in as many innings, but also walking 19 and hitting five batters. This year, he was much the same pitcher in the NWL though slightly worse in most categories (3.16 ERA; 65 K's; 34 BBs; 11 plunks in 77 innings).

Moroever, the league seemed to catch up to him. After coming out of the chute strong with a 1.80 ERA in two June outings and a 2.03 in six July appearances (he held NWL hitters to a .176 average during the month), Brigham's ERA shot up to 4.40 in his final six starts during which the league hit .309 against him. In other words, I'm not seeing strong evidence that Brigham is improving. To the contrary. He seems to be stagnating.

But Brigham has talent and that was recognized by Baseball America which ranked him as the 20th best prospect in the NWL this year, stating that Brigham "has the components necessary to be a middle of the rotation starter." Brigham has a 90-94 mph fastball (his velocity increased this year) that he offers from clean but deceptive delivery, a developing slider and a cutter. His change lags. The 6'3" righty is no more hittable against lefties, but his control problems are more than twice as evident against southpaws.

At this point, Brigham still appears to be more of a raw athlete than a pitcher, but by all accounts he's got the natural ability to make a huge leap forward once he figures it all out. He gets high marks for his character and leadership qualities, so he's a good bet to do so. We'll be keeping a close eye on his control in 2008 to see where he's at and where he's going.