• Viciedo's bat could quiet criticism

  • By Keith Law | March 9, 2009 10:53:39 PM PDT
Dayan Viciedo, the latest player to come through the Havana-South Side pipeline, does look like he's going to hit. His weight, position and even his age have all been questioned, but if the bat is there, those criticisms do become somewhat less important.On the plus side, he has a great swing that should lead to hard contact and allow him to tap into his raw strength to generate power. In batting practice, he was shorter to the ball than he was in the game and, while he didn't show the advertised power, he sprayed the middle of the field with long line drives. On the minus side, he strides early and long and takes an enormous cut, so he ends up off-balance much of the time, and I can foresee him struggling to adjust to changing speeds. He's down about 20 pounds from when he signed but is still a thick 247 pounds, so questions about his body and position (he was the DH on Monday) remain unanswered.• Speaking of unanswered questions, Aaron Poreda threw four innings but didn't show the solid second pitch that everyone in the scouts section wants to see. Poreda's fastball was, as usual, plus -- 90-94 mph with life and sink -- and he threw it for strikes, but his slider and change were both below average. He seemed to be working on the slider, throwing more of them than I'd ever seen him throw in a single outing. Based on the varying shapes of the pitch, I would guess that he is still looking for a comfortable grip and release point. The best sliders he threw had more depth than tilt, and he was guiding the pitch rather than just throwing it. His arm slot is still below three-quarters, although it looked higher than it was last fall, which, if true, gives him a better chance to turn his hand over on his changeup or get on top of a breaking ball. He has a clean delivery that he repeats well; he starts with an exaggerated leg kick (I know some people feel that adds deception; I'm not really sure about that) and takes a long stride toward the plate, and the only real negative is that he doesn't land firmly and his foot often slips out of place. It's possible he just doesn't have the arm speed to throw a good breaking ball, but it's too soon to rule it out, especially while they're still working on his arm slot.• Fausto Carmona was the 2007 version for five batters, gave up a ground-ball single, and became the 2008 version after that. Carmona was 90-94 with great sink, but after the first runner reached and he had to work from the stretch, he started elevating his fastball more and locating it less. His curve was erratic and he didn't command it, although if he's not pounding the lower half of the zone with his sinker, the breaking ball is probably not relevant.• John Danks was, if anything, worse, with poor command of his 88-92 mph fastball; his cutter was still his go-to pitch, but he struggled to set it up.• Anthony Reyes was 88-91 with a slow curve in the mid-to-upper 70s. I can't imagine the stuff he showed Monday will be good enough to keep him in an AL contender's rotation this year. • Michael Brantley had another couple of line-drive singles to left field. I'd like to see what happens if he gets a ball on the inner half (Can he turn on it? Drive it?), but if you can handle the ball on the outer half like that, you should at least hit for average.• I really don't need to see John Van Benschoten pitch again, thanks.

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