Solis finally debuts in the majors. Photo via Natsinsider blog/Mark Zuckerman
Welcome to the majors, Sammy Solis!
We’ve been hearing about Solis for quite a while. He was our 2nd round pick in 2010 (the same draft that also netted fellow MLB players Harper, Cole, Grace, Barrett and Robbie Ray; that’s quite a good draft), was routinely in the top 4-8 range of the Nats minor league prospects from November onwards, had some early success (2.72 ERA in his first full pro season at High-A), blew out his elbow, missed all of 2012, struggled in 2013 upon his return, barely pitched last year, and had become a forgotten man on all those prospect ranking lists.
Suddenly, he jumps AAA after throwing just four AA innings so far this year and debuts with two shutout innings against the hottest team in the NL. Wow, what a ride.
In the previous thread, there was some doubters about his velocity showings on TV… but a gander at Pitch F/X supports the stadium gun readings. Solis averaged 95.2 on his 13 fastballs, hitting 96.9 on his 10th pitch (a called strike 3 on the corner to end the 7th inning, perhaps his best pitch of the night). He also threw a few curves and changes. He was very much in the zone: 16 of 22 pitches were strikes, showing command of all three of his pitches. He got exactly zero swings and misses though, and the Mets hitters did get some solid contact throughout his two innings. So its probably safe to say he was a bit lucky BABIP wise on the night, and might have to work on his command a bit. His curves seemed up; perhaps its the shape (Gio Gonzalez‘s curves are up as well), but the Mets got good swings on them. He has a *huge* delta between his 4seamer and his change (95 to 83? that’s big). Is it too big; are hitters adjusting on the fly? It also seems like Solis needs an in-between velocity pitch, something like a slider that comes in perhaps in the 90-91 range, or perhaps a cut fastball with similar velocity reduction.
His mechanics reminded me of Matt Chico; simple, straight forward, not a ton of extraneous movement .. but with a ton more velocity. Exciting velocity frankly. If he can nearly hit 97 from the left side, maybe we need to be thinking about him returning to a starting role?
If you want to see some video, there’s a minute long clip of some of his mechanics on mlb.com with the game summary from 4/30/15.
Quick thoughts. Feel free to chime in.