Coming Wednesday: August Farm Report featuring Bettis
Chad Bettis, the Colorado Rockies’ second-round pick in 2010, has handled a heavy workload in 2011 — the natural result of having a successful season. Bettis, primarily a reliever in college, was 4-4 with a 4.30 at the California League All-Star break. Since then, he is 8-1 with a 2.56 ERA and has gone deep into games so consistently that the Rockies are now limiting his innings as the season winds down.
For his part, Bettis seems to have handled his workload well. He regularly touches 97, 98 mph with his fastball and averages 95 mph and to maintain that velocity late in the season is telling.
Read the full story in the August farm report, along with news about Tyler Matzek and Darin Holcomb, plus a look at the next wave of young pitching rising in the Dominican Summer League. The farm report will be sent Thursday to readers who have donated to Inside The Rockies for 2011. Donate now to receive this report as well as all the back issues from 2011, including our most recent issues with a look at outfielders Kent Matthes and Tim Wheeler.
Looking forward to this one. :)
What was the reason that Bettis wasn’t considered a big prospect for the Rockies up until recently? Seems like teams should be fighting over a guy with an average fastball of 95.
Jon
Looking forward to ITR Gentlemen. I was wondering the same thing about Bettis. I am guessing that the velocity is relatively new or his arm didnt project. But guys age, they get bigger, they learn a new pitch, their motion changes just a little to squeeze out more velocity. That is perhaps why I am so generous with DOD and the scouting folks. Guys who look all-world at 18 or 22 can never progress or get hurt and guys who at 18 or 22 look like organization filler can find something more. Its like looking at high school AP English papers and trying to figure out who might be make a good journalist, a future poet, or a great novelists. A lot happens between 18 and 25…or 28 or 30. (Sorry the closest an academic can get to the challenges of Bill Geivett and Co – and think about the Latin guys who have to look at guys still in the midst of puberty!).
Jon S, I’m sure the Farm Report will say more, but my understanding is that lots of folks thought Bettis projected as a reliever rather than as a starter. There’s a whole lot more value in a starter prospect than in a reliever prospect. I think the thing is that he’s developed some secondary pitches, as well as what the article mentions: the ability to sustain his velocity deep into ballgames. Not counting Pomeranz and White, he’s probably the best pitching prospect we’ve got right now. (Matzek hasn’t shown any consistency, Cabrera is a bit old for his league, Friedrich has slipped, etc.)
Agbayani, that is why I am wondering if Cabrera might be a nice addition to the pen mid year next season. He has power stuff, and if he could take the role that they hoped Paulino failed to fill – both a long-man and a guy you can bring in for a K, that would really help this team next year.
I think your dx is pretty right on. Although the progress by Matzek since he worked with his high school coach has finally been impressive. Still a young man, and if he can learn from failure like this season it might mature him quicker. He certainly has the tools. He will never be Greg Maddux I fear with control, but if he can smaller adn obviously lesser version of say Randy Johnson, a power lefty whose wildness can eb controlled and even work for him…that is what I think the team was hoping for with that high draft pick and big bonus. A rotation of Pomeranz, Chacin (be may be close to that dreaded 600 inning mark by then), White, Matzek and someone Bettis or another veteran…well that has potential (oh I hate that word) to be a division champ style rotation. But that is probably 2013 at the earliest, maybe 2014.