Jordan Yamamoto

[Madhawk23]

Sorry if I may have missed this in a previous thread, but do we have any first hand accounts of this guy's stuff? The kid just continues to put up really solid numbers on the mound, and seems to be improving each and every year in our system. I'm know that he's not a TOR type guy (otherwise he'd have more hype), but I guess I'm also hoping that this isn't just one of those soft-tossing righties either. Can anyone provide any insight on what type of pitching repertoire this guy brings to the table?

[CheezWizHed]

This came up last year in the game threads. If I recall correctly, he has pedestrian stuff with good control. 4 ok pitches with FB topping in low 90s.

[CheezWizHed]

Here is his draft write up:

 

Pitching in Hawaii and with more pitchability than pure stuff, it might have been easy to forget about this second best pitching prospect from the islands. But a championship tournament start, and win, against the state's best prospect, potential first rounder Kodi Medeiros, certainly helped this right-hander's stock. Yamamoto tossed a complete-game, two-hit shutout in that contest, impressing with his four-pitch arsenal and his control. He was 92-93 mph from start to finish with his fastball and can command the pitch well. He throws both a slider and a curveball, with the former being a more advanced pitch right now. He also has good feel for a changeup, giving him the chance to have four Major League average or better pitches. He's not the biggest guy in the world, but he's athletic and durable, with every chance to start at the next level. While Medeiros will clearly come off the board first, a team that takes this Hawaiian high schooler later [on] might get a nice steal.

[OnaBadger58]

I think I'm much higher on him than most people. He reminds me of a Yovanni light. I've read a report (can't find it) where he was hitting mid 90's to go with a much improved curveball and a changeup that is a bit behind.

[Madhawk23]

Yeah - I figured that he probably wasn't a pure stuff type guy, but I guess I was hoping that maybe the Brewers tweaked something in his mechanics that might have allowed him to pick up a couple of mph on the fastball - similar to what they've been able to do with some of their other pitching prospects (like Burnes). Will be interesting to see if Jordan continues to put up impressive numbers as he moves up to AA next year and AAA beyond that. At the very least, could be a good trade chip for us in future years as a back of the rotation type guy.

[OnaBadger58]

Yeah - I figured that he probably wasn't a pure stuff type guy, but I guess I was hoping that maybe the Brewers tweaked something in his mechanics that might have allowed him to pick up a couple of mph on the fastball - similar to what they've been able to do with some of their other pitching prospects (like Burnes). Will be interesting to see if Jordan continues to put up impressive numbers as he moves up to AA next year and AAA beyond that. At the very least, could be a good trade chip for us in future years as a back of the rotation type guy.

http://milwaukee.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/07/14/midseason-prospects-3-3-up-3-down/

 

Here is an article from a little over a year ago (scroll down to the Three Up headline). It talks about some of the things you mentioned with mechanical changes leading to increased velocity and more consistant command.

[Madhawk23]

Thanks for sharing that article from last year. That's at least encouraging to hear that he was hitting 95 in that game he was being scouted. As the article stated, you can't have enough of guys like Jordan - as at the very least they may provide some good trade value down the road. And who knows, maybe he continues this upward trend and actually makes his way into the big league rotation in a couple of years as a solid back end of the rotation starter for us.