Before we take a closer look at Brandon Finnegan’s virtuosic outing against Virginia last night, I want to briefly discuss how the College World Series, despite its fun-loving atmosphere and numerous walk-0ffs this year, has become a frustrating event for me to watch over the three years that I’ve closely followed the event.
As I mentioned a few times in my 2014 CWS preview, the event’s move from Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium to TD Ameritrade Park in 2011 has drastically altered how teams approach the double-elimination style tournament. Due to the dimensions of the stadium and the constant jet streams that blow into the stadium towards home plate, teams have been forced to focus primarily on manufacturing runs with small ball and home runs are an extreme rarity (also due largely in part to the recent switch from Ball Exit Speed Ratio bats to Batted Ball Coefficient Of Restitution bats a few years ago). In fact, over the eight games played so far at this year’s CWS, there has not been a single home run hit. During tonight’s game, TCU first baseman C.J. Cron hit a ball deep to left field in which he thought it was a home run right off the bat. C.J. knew it, all of the players knew it, and all of the fans in the stadium knew that his shot was gone the second it left his bat. Sure enough, the ball did not even make it to the warning track.
For next year’s tournament, if the outfield walls are not moved in 10-15 feet at the minimum, it would be an embarrassment for the college game. It is absolutely ridiculous that teams play all season (especially with the likes of Ole Miss and Virginia) relying on their power games to score runs but during the most crucial two weeks of the season, they are forced to rely on singles, bunts, steals, and praying to the baseball gods that the opposing team will make a least one boneheaded mistake during the game (i.e. Texas Tech’s mortifying 9th inning against Ole Miss a few days ago). Besides Vanderbilt, teams are averaging 2.4 runs per game in this year’s CWS and have a collective batting average around the .210-.220 range. Unless the fences are pulled in within the immediate future, the tournament will continue to be a stale combination of pitching duels and situational hitting that is accompanied by somewhat frequent walk-offs. We need the flair of the longball back and we need it now.
Now switching over to Finnegan: this was the first time I had a chance this season to sit down and completely watch an outing of his. From the previous research I had done and the videos I had watched of him, here are a few quick things I noticed about him that I really liked:
- He’s a power southpaw
- He repeats his mechanics well
- He has solid movement on his pitches (keeping hitters off-balance)
After watching tonight’s game, I became even more impressed by his poise whenever the situation became dicey as well as his ability to maintain his velocity late in the game (Finnegan went eight innings and was still throwing anywhere from 90-95 in the 7th and 8th innings). Additionally, Finnegan did a very nice job of getting ahead of opposing hitters (he threw first pitch strikes to 76.5% of the batters he faced during the evening) and was able to have hitters consistently rolling over on his pitches, regardless of whether he was throwing his plus-fastball or plus-slider (58.3% of the outs he recorded were via the groundout). He also averaged an economical 13.5 pitches/inning over his eight innings of work.
Finnegan’s combination of his cut fastball that sits in the low to mid 90s and his refined slider that averages around 83 mph makes him a very encouraging prospect in the Royals’ organization. Adding a third lefty with Jason Vargas, Danny Duffy, and hopefully minor-leaguer LHP Sean Manaea could make the up-and-coming Royals (who are currently riding a nine-game winning streak) an even more dangerous team in the AL Central within the next few years. I would love to see him add and develop a third pitch, either a two-seam fastball to compliment his cutter or a 12-6 curveball that would give his off-speed pitches more variety of movement at around the same velocity. Hopefully he will get another chance to start for TCU this season before heading off to the pros — TCU needs three consecutive wins without suffering a loss in order to advance to the CWS championship series.
