Michael
Plassmeyer

5/9/18 - Durable bodied, strike thrower who repeated his delivery. Landed slightly closed and towards his heel. Compact arm path to a three-quarters slot. Slot and landing gave some angle, both down and across, to his pitches which proved even more effective against left-handed hitters. For the season righties are hitting .275/.319/.370 with 11.2 strikeouts per 9 IP. Lefties .197/.254/.273 with 13.6/9. He has evolved from a pitch to contact lefty into one who can generate swing/miss. Always showed elite control (career 1.48/9 IP walk rate), and has now added a couple mph to the fastball and adjusted his breaking ball grip to a spike for a harder break. Showed average arm speed which produced an 87-92 mph fastball, mostly working at 90. Spin rate max 2470 rpm, low 2200, average 2340. Also had good tailing life on this look. Per analytics his fastball, on average, had three and one-half inches more of armside run than normal. Pitched to both sides of the plate and elevated his fastball on occasion. Generated a handful of swing/miss with four of his six strikeouts coming on this pitch; one looking, three swinging. His feature pitch tonight was an average to above average, at times, slurve thrown at 77-80 mph. Consistently repeated it for strikes. All of his pitches were called from the dugout and this one was called early and often. Spin rate of 2350/2050/2230. It too, generated a handful of swing/miss with two of his six punchouts coming on this pitch. His least used pitch this evening was the changeup. From my look it has a chance to be the best of all his pitches. Thrown with fastball arm speed at 79-82 mph it showed late fade/sink with a low spin rate of 1713/1526/1596. He did have a tendency to slow the pace of his delivery when throwing this pitch. I have no idea if that was just something he did on this look, or if it’s a habit, but that’s what my eyes told me. Held runners and got off the mound to field his position well, outside of a throwing error where he rushed a throw on a bunt down the third base line. Overall, he pitched with poise and confidence. With his package of stuff, pitchability and projection as a starting pitcher, Plassmeyer will likely be selected around the fifth-to-sixth rounds.