If you were hoping to better understand how Nick Nastrini has been considered just one tweak away from becoming a top-flight pitching prospect, then you're in luck this week.
James Fegan wrote about Nastrini for the Sun-Times, in which he talked to the pitcher and his Double-A pitching coach, Danny Farquhar, about how he might be able to put a dent in the one thing that's holding him back: his less-than-stellar walk rate.
“It’s really just understanding how my stuff plays,” Nastrini said. “When to use my stuff, pitch selection. That’s kind of where my development has been this past season. It’s understanding what pitches I can throw in what counts, what I can use to get early strikes, what I can use to put guys away with.”
An early example of this would be Nastrini’s changeup. While it’s his fourth pitch and often something pitchers set up to use as a put-away, the swing-and-miss rate on it when Nastrini is able to locate it in the zone is such that Farquhar encouraged using it earlier in the count to get ahead. [...]
Often, walks can be about lacking the means to end at-bats sooner. Nastrini is threatening the 30% strikeout barrier that has been familiar to him since his breakout, but Farquhar looked at his touted slider and saw potential for more whiffs.
Having already changed his slider grip earlier in the season, Nastrini spent his early days in the Sox’ organization doing “short box” drills. Here, the catcher sets up in front of the plate, and shaping the slider for the shorter path trains the right-hander to add more depth to the pitch.
As for how Nastrini's pitches currently play, you might want to check out Tess Taruskin's post on FanGraphs. She compares Nastrini to Cristian Mena, who have gone about compiling similar strikeout and walk rates in different ways.
Nastrini has a theoretical edge on Mena in the sense that he can get swinging strikes in the zone, but the sometimes scattershot control can put him in worse spots. Combine the two pitchers, and you might get the perfect arsenal -- or somebody who wouldn't make it out of A-ball.
Charlotte 13, Memphis 3
- José Rodríguez went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- Adam Hackenberg was 1-for-3 with a double, two walks and a strikeout.
- Yoelqui Céspedes, 2-for-5 with a double and a strikeout.
- Cristian Mena: 5 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
