Ever since Zach Lee was drafted by the Dodgers in the first-round of the 2010 MLB Draft, the young right-hander has garnered more than his fair share of attention.
First was the debate whether this exceptional talent even should have been drafted, due to his intent to play quarterback for the LSU Tigers. Then, after the Dodgers did select Lee with the 28th overall pick, was the suspense surrounding whether or not he would choose making millions in baseball or chase his other dream of quarterbacking a national champion in college football.
On Monday, May 7th, I got a chance to watch Lee work in-person when his Rancho Cucamonga Quakes took on the Inland Empire 66ers in California League action at San Manuel Stadium in San Bernardino. In his six innings of work, Lee demonstrated just why many scouts and baseball executives project the 20-year-old to be a potential ace of the Dodgers to tandem with Clayton Kershaw in the near future.
Lee featured a lively fastball in the low to mid-90's, a devastating curveball, a sharp slider, and the occasional changeup. The most amazing thing about his curveball was that he could throw the pitch for called strikes, as well as get batters swinging and missing on big breakers that would start letter-high before diving into the dirt.
While Lee struck out just five batters in his six-inning outing, he induced 10 outs on the ground, with the other three outs coming on a fly out, line out and pop-up. While some may wonder why it matters how the outs are recorded, it is noteworthy that Lee is able to keep the ball on the ground since it is exponentially harder for teams to rally against him without hitting line drives and fly balls.
The Quakes won the game 6-2, with Lee (2-2, 4.58 ERA) picking up the victory after giving up just one run on three singles, all in the second inning.
Assuming Lee continues on his current trajectory, it's likely the 6' 4" starter will earn a promotion to Double-A Chattanooga around mid-season, with a slight chance of making some September appearances with the Dodgers if they were to unexpectedly fall out of contention.
Click here for MiLB.com's player profile page on Zach Lee.
No comments:
Post a Comment