Watching Spring Training games in 2014, a young guy on Kansas City impressed me mightily as he threw in the upper 90s with a solid Changeup and a hook that made belts buckle. I quickly endorsed the young kid, believing he'd easily be a Top 20 talent in the next two years. Unfortunately, Yordano Ventura's time in the bigs has been turbulent as he's had troubles with his control while a featuring a shockingly underwhelming strikeout rate. However, tonight we were given a luscious taste of his upside as he went 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 4 BBs, 11 Ks. The main catalyst for his double digit strikeouts was an elite command of his Curveball - he was able to throw it for strikes as well as making batters chase in the dirt for the K. He even dialed his Curveball, yes Curveball, up to 89.97 MPH. Keep in mind, we're often impressed seeing a Slider at that speed, let alone a bender that features much more drop and bite. Sadly though, with all of this talent, Ventura is still a talented kid with raw ability, and I don't believe we'll consistently see performances like this for the rest of the season. There's a chance he matures in 2016, but it wouldn't be wise to trust him implicitly moving forward. One day kid, one day.
Let’s see what every other SP did yesterday:
