Friday Recap
Michigan 11, No. 20 Iowa 5
Similar to Friday night’s affair, Saturday’s game offered a pitching matchup of two potential draft-caliber players between Iowa’s Tyler Peyton and Michigan’s Evan Hill. Also similar to Friday’s game, each starter struggled with command and as a result had a shorter outing than anticipated.
Iowa’s Tyler Peyton, a two-way player similar to Michigan’s Jacob Cronenworth (profiled yesterday), got the nod on Saturday afternoon. He’s led Iowa in batting average while hitting and strikeouts while pitching for most of the 2015 season. He stands 6-foot-3 and weighs in around 180-pounds, giving him an athletic and projectable pitcher’s frame to work with.
Peyton, like Blake Hickman on Friday, came into the start with a fair amount of draft hype. He employs a very balanced delivery with a strong, coordinated lower half that he uses to generate good leg drive to the plate. It’s also a starter’s arm action, with good looseness and above-average arm speed to a high three-quarters slot, although he lacks plus plane to the plate, and when he works up in the zone—as he did on Saturday—that leaves his fastball relatively flat. He does get some solid arm-side run on the pitch, which did show the ability to miss barrels when down.
Peyton came out of the gate working 90-91 mostly, touching 92 a few times early, then settled in at 88-90 mph for the rest of the start. His problem on Saturday was fastball command, as he left quite a few pitches up in the zone, which Michigan was able to barrel with relative ease. His slider could project above average, with good depth and tight spin, although the control—let alone command—of the offering was lacking in this start. At it’s best, he’s able to start it over the plate in the lower half of the zone and bury it with good snap, and the pitch showed effectiveness vs. right and lefthanded hitters alike.
He’s undoubtedly an interesting arm with some of the tools to start, and an MLB team could fall in love with his potential to pop him in the top 10 rounds come June with the idea of grooming his as a starter.
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