Pitch-by-Pitch: Scouting Neil Ramirez

MATCH-UP – Hickory Crawdads (Texas Rangers) at Lexington Legends (Houston Astros)

KEY PROSPECTS WE’RE WATCHING – Neil Ramirez (RHP, Rangers) | J.D. Martinez (RF, Astros) | Jiovanni Mier (SS, Astros)

GAME BOX SCORE – Click Here

Neil Ramirez has always had the arm strength, but could he ever harness the control? He’s been doing just that this year, as his walk percentage is more than twice as low as it was in 2009. In the process, Ramirez has also managed to increase the number of bats he’s missed, and overall he’s reclaimed his prospect status.

In this game against Lexington, opposing hitters seemed to have a difficult time picking up his fastball early in the game. They were consistently late on the pitch and Ramirez did a good job of establishing his fastball early.

As the game wore on, Ramirez started to work in the curveball. He certainly has an ability to throw it for strikes, but he overdoes it I think. While he’s consistent in the control of his curveball, the command is still a work in progress. And while the curveball is consistently…

SCREENSHOT

A quick note on video structure…videos are edited to include only key and legitimate prospects. Time between pitches and between innings are edited out. Some commercials are left in out of respect for the companies that purchase ad buys.

I use time markers for when a particular hitter comes up to bat or a certain pitcher enters the game so you don’t have to shuffle through the video looking for key players. Games are edited so you can scout and evaluate a prospect in the most convenient and quickest way possible.