3/25/2016 8:45:42 AM
Wednesday was a wonderful day for baseball in Kansas, with mild temperatures and an outstanding showing by Riley Pint. Thursday was......not such a good day for baseball, at least if you were a scout looking to evaluate left hander Lucas Krull of Mill Valley (KS) High School.
The weather was awful, starting with going outside to mid-30's and light sleet in the morning and then moving on to the overcast and windy mid-40's late afternoon conditions. The field at Bonner Springs High School was soggy and the 30 or so scouts at the game all had on their heaviest jackets.
Metaphorically, the weather basically was the same as Krull's short day on the mound.
Krull, an Arkansas signee, is listed at 6-foot-7, 225-pounds, although I would eyeball him as a bit shorter than that. He has a highly athletic build and physically resembles a young Madison Bumgarner. Both Krull's parents were athletes at Kansas State, playing football and basketball. He is also a very young senior and won't turn 18-years old until July.
Krull hasn't circulated much nationally and has only appeared at the 2015 WWBA 17U National Championships and the 2015 Area Code Games, where I saw him pitch with a sound delivery and a very projectable 88-92 mph fastball. He is ranked 263rd in the Perfect Game 2016 class rankings and going into the day I thought that ranking was on the conservative side, basically due to the comparatively short resume more than the physical tools and projection.
The performance summary of the game is pretty simple. Krull faced nine hitters, walked seven of them and struck out two. He managed to pick off a couple of runners and had his catcher picked off another but he could never make the adjustments he needed to make to throw strikes.
Krull's delivery is fairly sound for his age and his arm action is compact and repeatable. There is no easy and obvious reason mechanically to account for his inability to throw strikes this day. From conversations with area scouts, there is also no history of it as well.
The raw stuff was consistent with what I'd seen before. Krull's fastball was 88-91, with one 92 early, and had lots of late running life. That running life cost him a number of strikes, as he consistently missed arm side with fastballs that were just off the outside corner. Notably, when Krull was having obvious problems throwing strikes with his fastball he didn't attempt to mix in any breaking balls, throwing only two in warmups and only one in the game. The pitch has tight spin at 73 mph and can be developed into a solid pitch for him in the future if he would use it more.
A good lesson for young pitchers who are struggling to throw strikes with their fastballs is to mix in some curveballs, especially if your fastball is consistently missing arm side. The action and process of coming around and over the ball on the curveball release, taking the ball to the glove side if possible, can help the fastball release and location. And in a more simplistic sense, if one pitch isn't working, try something else.
I sense the real reason behind Krull's unfortunate performance was more mental than physical. It was the first game of the season. The conditions were rough. There were a bunch of scouts pointing radar guns at him. It looked like he was almost hyper-ventilating during the first inning and he was rushing between pitches like there was a time limit on throwing the ball. When he got a bit squeezed on some early pitches, as happens, he didn't have the ability to step back, take a deep breath and refocus himself.
That's something the young man can learn from now and apply another day. That talent is definitely there.