I had the chance to drive down the street yesterday and see RHP Ryan Briggs from Creighton Prep, perhaps the top 2009 high school prospect in Nebraska, throw for three innings against Omaha Westside.
It was a strange game to watch from a scouting stand point, as it was more of a “Dad’s Game” for me. My son went to Prep as a freshman before transferring to Westside, where he now plays JV ball. Eric has known some of the Prep players since he was 8 or 9 years old and has played basketball with seemingly half of both teams. Both schools have top level baseball programs and Westside’s field, which is completely field turf, is probably the best high school field in the state.
I also invoked the “Below 40 Rule”. This is a jibe at Braves Scouting Director Roy Clark, who has the “Above 90 Rule” for his staff, meaning that Braves scouts can wear shorts if the temperature is above 90 degrees. My interpretation of that rule is if the temperature is below 40 degrees, I’m free to leave the ballpark whenever I feel I’ve seen enough. It was 37 degrees when I got to the warmth of my car after three innings.
Briggs is listed at 6-2, 180 lbs in the Perfect Game database, but that’s outdated. He has a strong, mature build and good strength in his hips and lower half. I’d give him 6-2, 200 lbs and say that he doesn’t have much more growing to do.
Briggs went through almost a full workout of running, throwing and stretching before the game that had me wondering how much he would have left once the first pitch was thrown. I think long toss is a valuable thing for all players, including pitchers, but I’ve seen other pitchers play long toss before a start and don’t understand it. Briggs was throwing lines from 250 feet away before he even stepped onto the bullpen mound.
Briggs throws from a fairly fast paced delivery with a full and clean arm circle in back and an over the top release point. He does a good job staying directional and keeping his head on plane despite the high release point, but struggled consistently his upper body positioned to where he could get his fastball anywhere close to down in the strike zone. I’d say only about 20% of his fastballs in three innings were below the waist and only about 40% were strikes.
I was watching San Diego State RHP Stephen Strasburg on video earlier in the week and was amazed at how well he positioned his upper body downward to create leverage towards the bottom of the strike zone. Many young pitchers like Briggs don’t do this, especially when they throw from the over the top release point, and it really affects their ability to get the ball down.
I was told that Briggs had topped out at 92 mph in his first start of the season (this was his second start, he had gone three innings a week previously) and wasn’t disappointed in his velocity. He warmed up steady at 88 mph and was 89-91 mph in the first inning and 88-90 in the second inning. The cold weather and his lack of confidence in locating his fastball dropped him to 85-88 by the third. Briggs fastball was very straight when it was in the strike zone and the Westside hitters had little trouble turning it around when they got one to hit.
Briggs threw a curveball, slider (his pitching coach called it a cutter when he was warming up but it was a true slider) and change up and all were quality pitches that you could easily hang a “50” or better (i.e. a future average Major League pitch) on. His curveball had very good velocity at 75-77 mph and hard downer spin that created some true 12/6 breaking balls. He had no problem getting the curveball down in the zone as he was getting on top of the pitch, unlike his fastball.
When Briggs decided to go with the slider, it was sharp and two-planed at 80 mph and easier to command than his curveball. As is almost always the case with good sliders at any level, the Westside hitters couldn’t do anything but basically wave at it.
Briggs only threw a couple of change ups in the first inning before abandoning the pitch as he worked behind in counts, but they were the right velocity (80 mph) with good arm speed and excellent late sinking life. This could be a nice pitch for him in the future.
Overall, Briggs showed me four pitches that can be big league quality pitches in the future, which is very unusual for a pitcher his age. His delivery will definitely need some work in order to be able to use them successfully. Briggs looks to be a good athlete and hit third in the Prep batting order, so hopefully he has the athletic aptitude to make adjustments.
Briggs has signed with the University of Virginia, whose coach Brian O’Connor has a long Omaha background, having played and coached at Creighton University. He is an excellent student from a well to do background, so signability will play a key role in pro scouts overall evaluation.
If signability weren’t a factor, Briggs is the type of high school arm that you could feel very comfortable slotting in the 5th-7th round. It certainly is possible that when the weather warms up later in the spring that Briggs could be touching some 93-94’s, which could possibly nudge that up a round or two.
P.S. Westside led 3-2 after three innings and went on to win 5-4.