23 replies to this topic

[Back Bay]

Age: 21
Born: June 17, 1990
Bethel, CT
Height: 6-4
Weight: 203
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Drafted: 1st round, 2011
How Acquired: Draft
College: Connecticut
High School: Bethel (CT)
ETA: Late 2014

Scouting Report: Tall righty with projectable body. Easy delivery. Fastball sits 93-95 mph and tops out at 96. Shows excellent downward finish in lower tier of strike zone, but tends to flatten out when elevated. Ball comes out of his hand fluidly. Works fastball to both sides of the plate. Solid-average fastball command. Also throws a high-70s curveball with tight rotation and deep break. Feels offering well to create hard snap. Can hold onto ball too long when throwing curve, but grades as a plus pitch. Needs to finish more centered with body for consistent command of offering. Average command. Future swing and miss out-pitch at the major league level. 86-87 mph changeup presently grades as fringe-average-to-average. Shows arm-side fade, but needs to create more deception and consistency when throwing it. Arm speed varies from fastball. Potential to become a solid-average-to-better offering. Repeatable and loose mechanics. Downhill thrower who generates easy velocity. Can get off balance during delivery, which affects release point and command. Lands too far open towards first base at times. Second or third starter projection on a first division team.

from http://soxprospects....barnes-matt.htm

[Back Bay]

Matt Barnes debut

IP 	H 	R 	ER 	BB 	SO 	HR 	ERA
5.0 	2 	0 	0 	2 	9 	0 	0.00

http://greenville.dr...lwdafx_capafx_1

Matt Barnes said he began his first Minor League outing Sunday afternoon with one mantra in mind: The mound doesn't change from college to pro ball. The mound stays the same.

Barnes -- a 2011 first-round Draft pick and the Red Sox's No. 13 prospect -- struck out nine batters over five innings in his pro debut Sunday as the Class A Greenville Drive stymied the Lakewood BlueClaws, 4-0, at Fluor Field.

"I just wanted to give my team a chance to win and do what I've done the last couple of years," the former University of Connecticut standout said. "Though we don't really get too many fans at UConn. I was pretty excited for this start ever since I signed."

Barnes, selected 19th overall last June, fanned at least one batter in each of his five frames. He gave up singles to Carlos Perdomo and Aaron Altherr and issued a pair of walks.

Lessons learned?

"When I was in the fourth inning, I tried to do too much," said Schumer, who followed Altherr's hit in the fourth by walking Christopher Duffy. "I need to let my stuff take care of it, don't get too over-amped."

The 21-year-old right-hander credited the strikeouts to his fastball. He said his coaches and father, who was in attendance, told him the pitch ranged between 94-97 mph.
http://greenville.dr...&vkey=news_milb

[Back Bay]

2nd start.

 	IP 	H 	R 	ER 	BB 	SO 	HR 	ERA
	5.0 	1 	0 	0 	0 	7 	0 	0.00

http://greenville.dr...capafx_wvaafx_1

[Snodgrass'Muff]

I imagine Barnes will breeze through Greenville and earn a promotion relatively quickly. He probably won't be challenged all that much before getting to AA, but that eventual jump could take some adjustment before he starts looking good there.

[SoxScout]

Let's be clear about something: as an advanced pitcher who was a first-round pick out of a very good college program, Matt Barnes should be dominating Low-A hitters. He doesn't belong at this level, but that's out of his control and he's doing his best to get out of there: he has struck out 16 over ten shutout innings in his first two starts of the year, including seven over five one-hit innings on Friday. He's missing plenty of bats with a fastball that has been up to 97 mph in both starts, and while his curveball and changeup will be tested more at High-A Salem, he's seemingly ready for that challenge.

Goldstein

[nvalvo]

H/9: 2.7
HR/9: 0
BB/9: 1.8
K/9: 14.4

Small samples, but holy shit.

[Back Bay]

Another start Barnes totally dominated

IP 	H 	R 	ER 	BB 	SO 	HR 	ERA
6.0 	3 	0 	0 	0 	9 	0 	0.00

http://www.milb.com/...capafx_lexafx_1

[SumnerH]

Barnes named SAL pitcher of the week
http://www.milb.com/...t=.jsp&sid=t428

The 19th overall selection in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, right-handed pitcher Matt Barnes wasted little time in beginning his professional career down the right path. The 21-year-old dominated opposing batters during the first week of the 2012 season, en route to being named the South Atlantic League's Pitcher of the Week for April 5th thru 15th.
...
Additional Notes: Barnes is the 5th pitcher in Drive franchise history to be selected as the South Atlantic League's Pitcher of the Week - Brock Huntzinger (7/27-8/3/2009), Cesar Cabral (4/26-5/3/2010), Manuel Rivera (4/25-5/2/2011) and Anthony Ranaudo (5/2-5/9/2011)

[Buzzkill Pauley]

amfox1 nailed it at SoxProspects.com -- when Matsuzaka's rehab starts with Salem have ended, the Barnes era there will begin.

[ehaz]

Wish they'd just started him at Salem. Seriously, a first round draft pick with that sort of college pedigree? That's beyond coddling, it's the same level they start Owens - who's three years younger.

[Super Nomario]

Wish they'd just started him at Salem. Seriously, a first round draft pick with that sort of college pedigree? That's beyond coddling, it's the same level they start Owens - who's three years younger.

I don't know if it really matters. If he spends half this season in Greenville and half in Salem and continues to do well, he starts 2013 in Portland where he's in a position to maybe be an option in Boston in August or so if he makes the same progress. If they push him more aggressively, maybe in the best-case scenario he's in a position to start 2013 in Pawtucket and maybe he can hit the majors a few weeks earlier. I don't see a huge difference.

As for his pedigree, he's from a cold-weather state and the Big East isn't a terribly strong baseball conference. He also only had one excellent year at UConn. I don't think his pedigree screams "let's put this guy on the super fast-track so he can be in the majors by the end of 2012."

[RedOctober3829]

Matt Barnes gave up a run yesterday for the 1st time in his pro career. Today? He's promoted to High-A Salem.

https://twitter.com/#!/alexspeier/status/196963359436967939

[OttoC]

Wish they'd just started him at Salem. Seriously, a first round draft pick with that sort of college pedigree? That's beyond coddling, it's the same level they start Owens - who's three years younger.

Part of the thing is just getting a player acclimated to the professional life, and I suspect that starting someone off at a lower level might make it easier as there probably won't be performance-issues for the player and he can get accustomed to an abrupt change in life-style.

[TheGoldenGreek33]

Part of the thing is just getting a player acclimated to the professional life, and I suspect that starting someone off at a lower level might make it easier as there probably won't be performance-issues for the player and he can get accustomed to an abrupt change in life-style.

Yep. Workman and Ranaudo, both of whom had stellar NCAA careers playing against tougher competition, even started in Greenville. Ranaudo made 10 (very good) starts in the Sally last year before getting the call, so they actually moved Barnes quicker -- and some of that decision has to do with other advancement goals that aren't performance related. We just don't know. Remember when Lavarnway, 22 years old at the time, spent 400+ AB's raking in Greenville for the entirety of his first full season in 2009? Nobody understood why he hadn't been called up.

[mabrowndog]

Nice piece by the Hartford Courant's Don Amore, who was in Lakewood NJ for Matt's latest outing:

Not much to say. There was no trickery involved. It was high 94 mph heat, as blistering in the sixth inning with Barnes nearing his 90-pitch limit as in the first, when Hudson missed a 96 mph fastball leading off the game. It has been this way for South Atlantic League hitters so far in this baseball season. They have looked as overmatched against Barnes as Big East hitters often did when he pitched for UConn. Seven of the eight professional hitters Barnes struck out in 5 2/3 innings Sunday went down swinging and missing his fastball.

"He keeps throwing like this," said Greenville manager Carlos Febles, "and he's going to be at Fenway in a year or two."

"He's one of the greatest kids I've ever been around," Febles said. "His teammates love him. I look to him for leadership in the clubhouse, and when he's on the mound, he's the leader out there."

More than Barnes' numbers, of course, is how he looks compiling them. His mechanics look smoother now, his control of his pitches near flawless. He did not walk a batter. His fastball velocity hit 94-96 mph consistently on the ballpark radar Sunday, without any sign of overthrowing. The curveball he was mixing in at 72-75 mph was keeping hitters off-balance, but at this level his fastball is his put-away pitch.

"He throws so hard, it's hard to gauge where to load up your swing," said Lakewood outfielder Aaron Altherr, who is hitting .301, but struck out twice against Barnes. "He throws it middle-away a lot, and he spots it. His curveball looks like it's coming at your head, then drops inside corner."

"He seems to be able to handle any situation," said Dick Such, a longtime major league pitching coach who is assigned to Greenville this season. "He's never nervous. He hasn't been tested much here, though."

[mabrowndog]

Alex Speier on Barnes' changeup:

He’ll get his first start in Salem this week. The Sox were particularly pleased by the progress that the right-hander made in incorporating his changeup. Though his mid-90s fastball and swing-and-miss curveball mitigated the need for a third pitch, the Sox wanted Barnes to work on refining it so that it is a weapon at his disposal as he moves up the ladder. And in that vein, the way in which the right-hander — the team’s first-round pick in 2011 — incorporated it after his first two starts was impressive.

“The last couple outings, the usage has been good, particularly [Sunday]. The reports were he threw several very good ones,” said farm director Ben Crockett. “Once he got the changeup more involved, we felt comfortable with him going to the next level and having the arsenal to handle that effectively, not needing trial and error in a place where he hasn’t pitched yet. Maybe he doesn’t need the changeup in Salem, but if he does, I don’t want him to find that out in his first outing after not having thrown it.”

Crockett described Barnes’ change as a hard change with some sink that has elicited some swings and misses, but that projects as he moves up the ladder to be more of an early contact pitch that elicits mis-hits.

[alwyn96]

Barnes! Barnes! Barnes! Barnes!

Barnes continues to be absolutely disgusting in Salem.

ERA 1.50
WHIP 0.83
IP 12
BB 1
K 20

He shouldn't be in Salem long if he keeps this up. I honestly can't remember another Red Sox pitcher being this electric so soon after entering the system.

Edited by alwyn96, 14 May 2012 - 12:29 AM.

[Quintanariffic]

Fantastic, detailed scouting report on Barnes:

http://baseballprosp...s-rhp/#more-694

Long story short: author feels very confident in #3 start projection and, with improvements observed since college, thinks chance of reaching #2 ceiling is much greater than before.

[Sports Illustrator]

Kid is still dominating. Portland is in his near future.

[riboflav]

Fantastic, detailed scouting report on Barnes:

http://baseballprosp...s-rhp/#more-694

Long story short: author feels very confident in #3 start projection and, with improvements observed since college, thinks chance of reaching #2 ceiling is much greater than before.

Can I ask a stupid question? If he is so electric and his rise since being drafted is very quick, why is his ceiling considered a number 2 SP but more likely a number 3? I guess I'm asking what is he missing that scouts don't believe he can accomplish in order to ever be a number 1 and probably not a number 2.

[LesterFan]

I've seen people like Kevin Goldstein often mention that they rarely project anyone to be a #1 unless it's an elite, can't miss prospect like Stephen Strasburg. Also that there are only 10 or so pitchers right now that one would consider a #1, so it's a small group.

I don't think they mean he can't ever get there, just that you have to be really, really good. A #2 isn't an insult at all.

[Snodgrass'Muff]

I imagine if he dominated AA the same way he's dominating now, there might be some adjustments in projections for his ceiling. I don't think it's terribly likely he'll continue to dominate like this after being promoted, but if he did it would be hard not to consider the possibility of him becoming an ace type pitcher. Long way to go before that's even worth talking about, though.

[Doctuh]

Matt Barnes lasted one inning in his Double-A debut, allowing two runs and two hits in the first.  Jim Murphy lined an RBI single and Tyler Henson followed with a run-scoring triple.  Barnes fanned three, walked one and threw 36 pitches (21 strikes).  Keith Couch relieved Barnes and pitched four solid innings on five hits and one run.

 

-via seadogs.com.

 

Was pulled strictly due to pitch count.. 

 

Does anyone have an indication as to how his pitch counts will be working? I would like to go see him pitch, but not for 1 inning.

Edited by Doctuh, 09 April 2013 - 03:13 PM.

[Quintanariffic]

-via seadogs.com.

 

Was pulled strictly due to pitch count.. 

 

Does anyone have an indication as to how his pitch counts will be working? I would like to go see him pitch, but not for 1 inning.

Per Chris Mellen of SP, it's Sox policy to remove pitchers from the game when their pitch count exceeds 30 in one inning.  I don't anticpiate you'll run into this very often with Barnes going forward.