Stacey King
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Jose Berrios Shows Why He’s Improved Despite Rocky Double-A Debut
July 17, 2014 by Ben Badler
While the results weren’t there, Twins 20-year-old righthander Jose Berrios showed why he has the potential to be a mid-rotation starter on July 9 in his Double-A New Britain debut.
Pitching against the Blue Jays’ New Hampshire affiliate, Berrios allowed five runs in five innings despite giving up just three hits. He walked three batters, all of whom scored, and allowed two home runs with four strikeouts.
Berrios was pounding the strike zone in the first two innings, retiring the first six hitters he faced. After that, New Hampshire made him pay for his mistakes. Berrios started the third inning by walking the first two hitters, who moved over to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. The next batter, center fielder Dalton Pompey (the No. 47 prospect in the minors), squared up a 95-mph fastball on the inner half, pulling a line-drive single to right field to score both runners.
A walk and a home run by left fielder Michael Crouse in the fourth inning tacked two more runs on the scoreboard, then Pompey got to Berrios again, hitting a 3-2 fastball over the center field wall for a solo homer to make it five runs in five innings.
“He’s a young kid making his first start in Double-A,” New Britain manager Jeff Smith said. “He went out, attacked the zone, worked down in the zone and threw a lot of strikes. The thing that got him in trouble was he had a few walks in the one inning and they capitalized on a few of the mistakes he made, but the good thing I really liked was the poise on the mound that I saw. He’s very athletic on the mound and he attacks with three pitches, so he’s going to be a good one.”
There are two main reasons why Berrios is a better prospect than he was at this time last year and the No. 27 prospect in baseball. For one, he’s throwing harder. When the Twins drafted Berrios with the No. 32 overall pick in 2012, he sat in the low-90s and topped out at 95 mph, velocity he maintained last year in his first full season. This year, Berrios has been up to 98, and while he didn’t hit that number on Thursday, he came close. Berrios’ fastball sat 91-96 mph and touched 97, mostly in the 94-96 range in the first inning with a mix of two-seamers and four-seamers the rest of the way.
Berrios isn’t tall, but he has an athletic, lean frame at 6 feet, 187 pounds. Conventional wisdom doesn’t peg many 6-foot righties as projectable, but Berrios said he believes he’s throwing harder because of his training and nutrition, even though he hasn’t gained any weight since last year, with a preference for lighter weights and bands to lifting heavy.
“I worked more than last year,” Berrios said. “Now I’m doing my routine. Every day I have a routine for training—one day rest, then throw. That helped me this year. Last year, I didn’t do anything. My body felt good, but not strong like this year. I eat better, I eat healthy. Last year I didn’t take care of my body. This year, I’m doing good.”
Berrios has also turned his changeup into a consistent plus pitch. The changeup has always been Berrios’ go-to secondary pitch when he needed to finish a hitter, but now it’s a true 60 on the 20-80 scale. At 83-86 mph, Berrios’ changeup had good sink and induced several swings and misses. The occasional hitter making weak contact into foul territory after getting caught out front was about the best result anyone in the New Hampshire lineup had when they offered at Berrios changeup.
“He was probably amped up for his first Double-A start,” Smith said. “He was throwing hard, and that changeup having the same arm speed as his fastball really kept hitters off balance, and like you saw, he got a lot of swings and misses on it.”
With a 1.96 ERA in 96 1/3 innings, 2.2 walks per nine innings and 10.2 strikeouts per nine this year in high Class A Fort Myers, Berrios can miss bats and throws plenty of strikes. His delivery has good direction to home and he works both sides of the plate. The biggest key for Berrios will be the development of his slider, which has always been his No. 3 pitch. At times on Thursday, Berrios’ slider flashed as an average offering, but mostly it was a below-average or fringy pitch at 78-82 mph. He tends to get around the ball, but the pitch did have its moments, so finding more consistent sharpness with his slider will be important.
“Today, not too good” Berrios said of his slider. “I keep working with all my pitches and do better next time.”
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