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Thread: TJ Antone and Player Development

  1. #1
    Member Bourgeois Zee's Avatar
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    TJ Antone and Player Development

    In 2017, Tejay Antone injured his arm. That required 18 months of rehab. Worries at the time were that this would sap Antone of his meager fastball-- an 88 - 92 mph disappointment in his previous three professional seasons-- and the TCU alum would soon be out of baseball. When he came back in the second half of 2018, Antone's fastball was back to below average normal. He struggled to knock off the rust and pitched relatively poorly in the A+ Florida League, with a 4.03 ERA and nearly double the walks from his previous A+ stint. He followed that up with an improved season in both AA and AAA last year and a newly formed slider. A ground ball specialist, at this point, Antone was a break-glass-in-emergency kind of guy. He was the type the Reds often trotted out while losing 90+ games for a decade.

    Then a light bulb. Or more properly, someone got a hold of him and taught him how to throw the ball.

    Antone now has a fastball that ratchets up to the mid-90s. Often. He's worked 95 - 97 and hit 98 over short stints this spring and summer. Not only that, as of his last stint pitching two days ago, Antone's slider is frisbee-like. It is, according to a Doug Gray article, considered a plus pitch by at least one scout. This combination of pitches allowed Antone to post a three-inning line of seven K's and no hits. No one got the ball out of the infield.

    Obviously, Antone's isn't the typical development path. But his new-found stuff could be transformative for his career. More importantly, it puts Antone firmly in the cross-hairs of Reds' brass as a possible tandem starter early in the season and relief arm or depth starter as the season progresses. It's great news for the Reds' willingness to embrace analytics as they move forward in helping their minor leaguers work toward the bigs.

    Four questions to discuss, then:

    1) Where does Antone rank in terms of starting pitching depth for the big club, and do you trust him to become a viable option as a major league pitcher?

    2) Antone did most of his development in the off-season as part of APEC, a Texas-based program. Is this, then, a one-off-- something the Reds can take credit for but had no hand in developing, or is it thanks to a burgeoning culture in the Cincinnati development process that prospects should embrace moving forward? In short, can Boddy do the same with other Red minor leaguers?

    3) Does Antone's new-found stuff improve his standing in your own personal Reds' prospect list? (Doug Gray has him at 15, fwiw, and I suspect that may be underselling him a bit.)

    4) What other Red minor leaguers would do well to follow the Antone plan, as it were? Who's short on stuff and needs a few mph to become a usable piece of the MLB puzzle?

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    *BaseClogger* (07-15-2020),Edd Roush (07-15-2020),ochoa30 (07-15-2020),UPRedsFan (07-16-2020)


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  4. #2
    Two-Time Batting Champ Edd Roush's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    I am also very intrigued by Antone.

    Right now, I believe I would have him in that #7 - #9 tier with De Leon and Santillan. I believe all three could be viable major league pitchers, but it will be tough without a minor league season to rely on any of them as a member of the 2021 starting rotation if both Bauer and DeSclafani move on in the off-season.

    I do think pitching development will be much different in the future than we had seen in the past. We will need to take a while to see if this culture shift pays dividends, but Antone will be an interesting initial test case.

    I have Antone at #13 on my list. I began voting for Antone at #19 in our off-season polls, but had been voting for Ivan Johnson since #12. I generally agreed with the board's top 11, but then started to diverge.

    I believe this year's draft allowed a peak into what guys Boddy/the Reds brass believe would benefit from the "Antone plan." They are tall guys with significant athletic upside who have shown the propensity to spin a breaking ball. From memory, I believe Roa, Bonnin and Boyle all fit that type.

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    Member Bourgeois Zee's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Quote Originally Posted by Edd Roush View Post
    Right now, I believe I would have him in that #7 - #9 tier with De Leon and Santillan. I believe all three could be viable major league pitchers, but it will be tough without a minor league season to rely on any of them as a member of the 2021 starting rotation if both Bauer and DeSclafani move on in the off-season.
    This is the issue with a lack of window into Prasco Park development and the loss of the minor league season.

    Santillan, DeLeon, and Antone are all playing at Prasco (as is Lodolo). They'll get to show off their abilities for Reds' brass and develop, at least.

    The issue comes with those who aren't/ haven't been "protected."

    Hunter Greene, Packy Naughton, and others are going to have to do things completely differently than they have in the past, with most of it out of the eye of the discerning minor league enthusiast.

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    Member Spanky's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Quote Originally Posted by Bourgeois Zee View Post
    This is the issue with a lack of window into Prasco Park development and the loss of the minor league season.

    Santillan, DeLeon, and Antone are all playing at Prasco (as is Lodolo). They'll get to show off their abilities for Reds' brass and develop, at least.

    The issue comes with those who aren't/ haven't been "protected."

    Hunter Greene, Packy Naughton, and others are going to have to do things completely differently than they have in the past, with most of it out of the eye of the discerning minor league enthusiast.
    my guess is most of our higher profile pitching prospects will be at driveline a good amount this year.
    The television crews left and about 10 reporters remained in the room. That's when Price took his turn doing the talking.
    What followed was a five-minute, 34-second expletive-filled tirade. The final tally was 77 uses of the "F" word or a variant and 11 uses of a vulgar term for feces (two bovine, one equine).

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    Moderator RedlegJake's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    The Reds have always seemed to like Antone more than his numbers might suggest. I read and don't remmeber where I saw it but he was compared to a right handed Tom Browning. Averagish stuff but a bulldog mentality. If he really has dialed up his stuff he might be an interesting prospect.
    99% of all numbers only tell 33% of the story so when looking at the numbers remember that numbers is plural...

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    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Am I a bad person for wanting Tejay Antone to pass a few drug tests before I buy into his uncanny velo increase? I mean, I'm a bad person for so many other reasons, but picking up 7 MPH on your heater at age 26 over the course of a winter has a distinct Barry Bonds neck circumference feel to it.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  9. #7
    Member Spanky's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    Am I a bad person for wanting Tejay Antone to pass a few drug tests before I buy into his uncanny velo increase? I mean, I'm a bad person for so many other reasons, but picking up 7 MPH on your heater at age 26 over the course of a winter has a distinct Barry Bonds neck circumference feel to it.
    maybe his mechanics were just horrible, yes 7 mph is an insane increase, but from what I've seen from the Driveline stuff is that guys go in throwing 95-96 and come out hitting 100-101 so doesn't seem impossible.
    The television crews left and about 10 reporters remained in the room. That's when Price took his turn doing the talking.
    What followed was a five-minute, 34-second expletive-filled tirade. The final tally was 77 uses of the "F" word or a variant and 11 uses of a vulgar term for feces (two bovine, one equine).

  10. #8
    Sprinkles are for winners dougdirt's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Quote Originally Posted by Spanky View Post
    maybe his mechanics were just horrible, yes 7 mph is an insane increase, but from what I've seen from the Driveline stuff is that guys go in throwing 95-96 and come out hitting 100-101 so doesn't seem impossible.
    Very, very, very few guys pick up that kind of velocity.

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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    It was a long winter?

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    M2 (07-20-2020)

  13. #10
    Member podgejeff_'s Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    Am I a bad person for wanting Tejay Antone to pass a few drug tests before I buy into his uncanny velo increase? I mean, I'm a bad person for so many other reasons, but picking up 7 MPH on your heater at age 26 over the course of a winter has a distinct Barry Bonds neck circumference feel to it.
    Would PEDs even increase your velocity that much, that quick?

    I'm thinking it's mechanical.

  14. #11
    Sprinkles are for winners dougdirt's Avatar
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    Re: TJ Antone and Player Development

    Quote Originally Posted by podgejeff_ View Post
    Would PEDs even increase your velocity that much, that quick?

    I'm thinking it's mechanical.
    It's not mechanical, exactly. Mechanics are pretty much the same. He trained differently. Wasn't a Driveline kind of thing.


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