Scouting the Squirrels

Looking for the scouting reports of the current Richmond Flying Squirrels players? You are in the right place. This page will get updated daily. New notes added to pre-existing reports will be clearly noted. If you have any questions, fell free to contact me via twitter or e-mail jspen2fn (at) gmail (dot) com.

Jason Stevenson
Basics:
6’1″ 175 lbs.
Throws L / Bats L
Age : 30

Quick Hit: At 30 years old he is extremely old of the level and does not seem to be going anywhere and is most likely an organizational arm. Signed as a Minor League Free-Agent (MLFA) last year, he saw time in both Richmond and Fresno.

Stevenson is your prototypical lefty. He has three pitches; Fastball, Curveball, and Changeup.
The fastball sits 83-85 early, 81-83 late in the game, and will top out at 86. It has nice arm side run as it approaches the plate. He adds and subtracts speed well when need be to keep hitters off-balance. He commands it well and can throw it for strikes anywhere in the zone, but can be loose with it inside the zone. Often he will miss his spots, but the movement and his other pitches, cause it to play up.

His curveball sits 78-80. It is not the sharpest one you will see as it seems that he gets around the pitch. He often will have trouble throwing it for strikes and will not throw it until late in a sequence when he is going for the strikeout. The ball comes out at the two o’clock position and will finish up around the six-to-seven o’clock position.

The changeup sits 76-78. He does well in keeping it in the golden range of 6-10 MPH difference from his fastball. He will use this pitch in all counts and locations. He does well in keeping the same arm speed as his fastball. It has some good sink and fade to the arm side. Stevenson can use it to set-up his fastball or off of his fastball. His command of it is good, but had trouble controlling it early. Often he would throw it to the outside corner on both lefties and righties and would bury it in the ground early. Once he got a feel for it, he had no problem throwing it to all locations.

Stevenson’s delivery is simple and smooth and has no problem repeating it. Hides the ball decently and does not seem to over-exert himself to get the fastball to the plate. He worked the counts normally first time around, using the fastball to get to his other pitches. Late in the game he started to pitch backwards to keep hitters off-balance.

With runners on he did well varying his looks and hold times. Posses a quick move to first and picked off a runner in the first inning. He was 1.4-1.5 to the plate with the fastball. 1.6 on the changeup.

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Brett Bochy
Basics:
6’2″ 190 lbs
Age: 24
Throws : R / Bats: N/A

Quick Hit: 10th pick in the 20th round , Bochy saw time in Low-A Augusta last year. He has a live arm and could still add a couple of ticks to the fastball. If his breaking ball improves he could be a useful right-handed specialist. He can get long with the arm swing and that causes him some troubles. Smooth delivery, repeated it well.

Brett Bochy certainly has the possibility to have a live arm. He has three pitches; Fastball, Changeup, and a Slurve.

The fastball sits 87-88 with nice run late. He will pound the inside part of the plate to RHH to get to his slurve. He kept it down in the zone nicely and worked both sides of the plate. When he needed to change the eye level of the batter or throw a ball out of the zone, he did so without leaving it up in the zone and over the plate.

He threw one chaneup at 80 MPH that was heavy and dove at the end.

His slurve could use a little work. As I mentioned above he would use his fastball to get to the slurve late in the count. It came from just below the ten o’clock position and ended up in between the four and five o’clock position. He would throw this strictly away. The one left he face he threw it with two strikes and it became more of a 12-6 breaker and was slapped to the opposite field.

He averaged 1.5 seconds to the plate with a runner on.

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Tom Vessella
Basics:
6′ 6″
Age: 26
Throws L / Bats: N/A

Quick Hit: Signed as a MLFA last year he saw time at all levels. Has a good fastball with late life but has trouble controlling it. Threw two breaking pitches, both for balls. If he can control his pitches, especially his fastball, he could be a useful piece to someone.

At 6′ 6″ and long, lanky arms, Vessella cuts down a lot of distance to the plate. He threw two pitches last night; fastball and slurve.

Vessella comes from the mid-3/4rds arm slot. Think Randy Johnson’s arm slot. His fastball sits 87-90 and he got it up to 91 a couple of times. The ball jumps out of his hand and explodes back to the arm side late. He had no problem throwing the fastball at the hip of RHH and bringing it back to the inside corner. He will throw it early and often all over the place. He can throw strikes with it, but the movement allows him some security when he misses his spot, which was often.

His slurve was 77-78 and would hop out of his hand, moving from just below the two o’clock position and ending around the seven/eight o’clock position. He threw one to a lefty that, when set-up well, was unhittable. The only other time he threw it was to a RHH on the outside corner.

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