Thursday, October 2, 2008 | By Alex Eisenberg

Breaking Down the Draft - Some Requests

Continuing this series, I went ahead and looked at three players that were among the suggested players to look at: Xavier Avery (Orioles), Kyle Russell (Dodgers), and Tim Melville (Royals). Below is an excerpt on Melville:

You can see why scouts drool at the mouth in terms of his velocity potential. Melville has a very projectable frame and is said to throw anywhere from 90 - 95 mph, though I have not personally seen him reach 94 or 95 mph. He does this with a pretty slow tempo, which I add up to around 27 frames. His wind-up also looks smooth and combined with the slow tempo, you can see why his fastball velocity looks harder than it really is.

Tim Melville

Melville could potentially add velocity if he were to speed up his delivery or at the very least increase his perceived velocity. One thing that may be limiting Melville's velocity is the way in which he plants his front foot. It lands in a closed position and as a result he is cutting his hip rotation short, which you can see below...

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