Sleeper Prospect Alert – Indians Pitcher TJ House
A player that hasn’t gotten a lot of press is Cleveland Indians pitching prospect TJ House, a 19 y/o lefty from Mississippi that dropped to the 16th round in the 2008 draft because of signability issues. House is currently pitching in the Sally League (low-A) for the Lake County Captains.
The athletic lefty has two fastballs, a high 80′s two-seamer that allows him to generate ground balls when he needs them and a low 90′s four-seamer with above average life and a little bit of a cutting action.
He commands his fastball pretty well, but still needs work on commanding his secondary offerings. He’s shown he can spin a breaking ball with his low 70′s curveball that sweeps across the plate, but he struggles to throw it for strikes. He’s able to generate swings-and-misses on the pitch, but hitters at higher levels will do a better job of laying off that pitch.
House’s change-up is a potential average pitch and shows good fading action, but he’ll need to work on maintaining his arm speed.
House’s mechanics are clean and repeatable. His tempo is good at 23 frames from the point his knee reaches its uppermost point until release. House breaks his hands early and is pretty quick from hand break to release, with no noticeable hitch in his arm action. House could break his hands later to generate a bit more explosiveness to his fastball, but only if he’s comfortable in doing so and his control doesn’t suffer as a result.
House isn’t a big separation guy and by this I mean he doesn’t generate a great deal of separation between his torso and hips. You usually see the hardest throwers generate the most separation, leading to a more powerful uncoiling of the upper body.
*Credit to tlastoria via Indians Prospect Insider and the MLB Scouting Bureau
BTW, Indians Prospect Insider is really worth checking out for any Cleveland fans searching for minor league information on their club.
Now back to House…a couple changes I noticed from the time he was drafted to this year: there is a little more bend in his back leg this year and the action of his front leg as he strides forward is a bit different as well, but the big change was made with his glove side arm action. Compare the two clips above…the draft video is on the right and House from March this year is on the left.
Take note of the glove side arm in each clip. The difference is rather subtle, but in the draft video, the arm is more horizontal, with the elbow pointed toward third base. In the more recent clip, House’s elbow is pointed more toward the sky and is rotated at a more vertical position. The arm moves to a more horizontal position as he firms up his glove side.
The change was likely made because if one rotates the glove-arm with the elbow pointed toward third, there is more of a tendency for the shoulder to fly open. The change allows House to keep the shoulder closed for a longer period of time.
By the Numbers
House has gotten better with time. He started slow, battling command issues, but his control has been solid in both May and June. He misses his fair share of bats, but isn’t overpowering and generates his fair share of ground balls though he isn’t an extreme ground ball guy either.
House has been difficult to center the ball against and I think you can attribute that to a couple things: his feel for pitching, which is pretty advanced for his age and the fact that his curveball and fastball travel on the same plane and come from the same arm slot, making it difficult for hitters to decipher each pitch out of his hand.
House projects to be a No. 4 starter at the big league level, but could best that projection should he add velocity to his fastball by filling out his still projectable frame and/or making a couple of mechanical tweaks to his delivery. The development of his change-up will also be key.
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