Future Pitchers

The folks over at Beyond the Boxscore have compiled PITCHf/x and some other stats from the youngins at the Futures Game.

The fastest pitch? Neftali Feliz.

The top 14 fastest pitches? All Neftali Feliz.

Considering that he averaged over 99 mph on his fastball and that his changeup had the 2nd most horizontal movement of any of the pitchers pitches, I think it's safe to say that this kid is going to be good. The Rangers have him pitching relief in AAA right now, but if they need relief help they could call him up right now, he should have no problem getting big leaguers out immediately. Whether or not that is a good move is a completely different debate, but it's not a debate as to if Neftali Feliz can succeed at the big league level in that role right this second.

I admittedly did not watch the Futures Game considering the whole 4 hour delay, which is unfortunate because it looks like I missed some mighty fine pitchers including Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Kyle Drabek among many others. Did anyone get to see that Casey Kelly kid on the Red Sox? He was drafted as a pitcher but his love is playing shortstop and he has cut a deal with the team that in the 2nd half he can play SS after pitching the first half. In 48.1 innings at Low-A he had a 1.12 ERA, and in 46.2 innings at High-A he had a 3.09 ERA. In 95 innings in the minors the kid has thrown 16 walks, pretty damn good control for a guy that doesn't want to pitch. He may not enjoy pitching now, but when he realizes it's his best ticket to millions of dollars I think you'll stop seeing Casey Kelly at SS in the box scores, but until then it should be a very interesting story to watch.