Mound Talk

Neftali Feliz was ranked as the #30 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus and #93 by Baseball America. I kept him off my list because of control questions as I’m sure others did as well.

On Saturday night, Perez had an outting to forget. In 2/3 of an inning he walked five batters, struck out none and allowed no hits. Obviously control was an issue and that is what kept him unranked by the prospecting community collectively. Given the brevity of his outting and the obvious problems he had, I am not ready to do a full scouting report but do want to offer a few comments on Perez as a prospect.

The reason BP holds him in such high regard is his blazing fastball. He can dial it up to triple-digits but did not on Saturday evening. He works pretty regularly in the 94-96 range. His command issues are derived from inconsistent mechanics.

His secondary stuff isn’t great. It is very inconsistent and command is poor. Again, this largely stems from mechanical issues including an inconsistent arm slot, different release points and an imbalance during delivery.

Outfielder Engel Beltre was playing in both games of the double-header. He was acquired in the Eric Gagne trade from Boston last summer. The short and sweet scouting report is that he’s just like most Latin American players…tools oriented. He has plenty of tools and is developing his power. He is very raw. He is a talented defender with a very good arm. The biggest thing I noted is that he is very raw and inconsistent. He’ll need to spend a full year at Low-A and will likely need a full year in High-A as well.