Last edited by M2; 09-08-2013 at 08:27 PM.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
Idle speculation here. Perhaps they started him out as a closer on the off chance that he could help the big club this season. And now they will begin the process of converting him to the starting rotation in Arizona. Or maybe I am completely wrong.
There was some stuff going on with Lorenzen this season related to Scott Boras that only those involved in the negotiations would know about for sure. There was more to the "Lorenzen will get to the big leagues in 2013" talk than just some idle chatter. It did not happen, obviously. There were some major restrictions on how Lorenzen could be utilized this summer. He started out at one inning every 2-3 days. The last week of August, they let him throw on back-to-back days for the first time. He threw more than one inning only one time all year. I have no idea if they plan to look at him as a starter in the future, but the restrictions on him in 2013 were way too tight for that to even be a consideration.
This kid has exceptional stuff. His fastball and slider are potentially dominant pitches. Outside of Stephenson, there is no one with an arm that can match Lorenzen's in the entire organization. He has a ways to go. The idea of being a two-way player is probably holding him back a bit, at least in terms of mentally starting to think like a pitcher 100 percent of the time. There are some pitchers on the list that potentially could develop plus stuff, but Lorenzen is already there.
As far as a list of the hardest throwers in the system, nothing like that exists and it would be difficult to compile. The radar guns in the ballparks are not dependable and some are not even close. Only the teams would have the data and they are not sharing it. Doug would have a better idea of what guys are throwing with different farm clubs but here is a list of guys that hit 95 or higher most every time out:
Stephenson
Lorenzen
Partch
Ravin
Kivel
Hayes
Contreras
MyMyne
Corcino used to, though not consistently. Not sure about 2013.
Rogers did when he was a reliever.
Walczak probably, though I could not confirm this.
Crabbe might be getting to this point, not sure.
There might be some others. Information is not easy to obtain. Doug could chime in on this but unless you have a conversation with someone who has a radar gun or a chart, you are not going to know for sure.
camisadelgolf (09-09-2013)
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