Yesterday (6/7/22), the Rangers' AA affiliate Frisco took on the D'Backs AA Amarillo side which peaked our interest because of the chance to see former Vanderbilt legend and 2021 #2 overall draft pick (TEX SP Jack Leiter) face what many rankings/rankers see as the soon to be #1 overall prospect (AZ CF Corbin Carroll).
And, for both Leiter and Carroll, this was a chance to face a high ranking prospect (on a similar trajectory towards the show) if not even facing a potential major league player, as Carroll could make his debut as early as this year and some folks had pegged Leiter as "major league" ready before his two game stretch (May 14th and May 20th, 5.1 IP, 13 ER) which saw his ERA balloon from 1.93 to 6.38.
But, after another two starts brought Leiter's ERA back down under 5.00, Leiter looked to continue his hot pitching against the similarly hot hitting Sod Poodles.
And, it didn't take long to get into our matchup as the first batter Leiter faced in inning 1 was Amarillo's lead-off batter, Corbin Carroll.
Although a pitch or two was close, the AB was uneventful as Corbin didn't swing and drew a four pitch walk.
With Corbin on 1B, Leiter took care of the next two batters....
Then, on a 1-2 pitch with 2 out, Corbin took off for second...
...but was tagged out just short of 2B for a caught stealing.
The wheels fell off the bus for Leiter in the 2nd when he gave up some hard contact, and ultimately a grand slam (to Andy Yerzy) on a 1-2 FB down the middle of the plate.
After the GS, and "inducing" an out on a hard line drive to 2nd, Carroll was up again.
This time, Leiter won the battle vs Corbin with a K
P1: Slider for a strike (86mph), P2: curve ball just missing (79 mph), P3: slider or change (86mph) up in the zone (Corbin swings and misses) P4: Leiter dials up the FB (96mph), Corbin fouls it off; P5: FB (95mph), Corbin swings and is late.
In the end, Carroll was 1-2 with (stretching a single into a 2B) (the hit wasn't against Leiter), 2 BBs and 1 CS, while Leiter was lit up on the day (just not by Carroll) throwing 94 pitches over 5 IP, giving up 7 runs (2 HRs) and a lot of all around hard contact (including balls off the bat at 100mph+) to go with 5 K's and 4 walks while raising his ERA to 5.90.
Leiter is obviously in a funk. If he thinks he can throw a 94-96 MPH fastball down the middle on a 1-2 count, he's wrong (and was wrong yesterday and paid for it). Leiter needs to throw more of his secondary pitches for strikes so that he doesn't have to rely on fastballs (and let hitters sit on that pitch). Sitting 94-96 is good, above MLB average...but maybe not great unless those offerings have a lot of movement. Major League hitters aren't going to have a problem hitting 96 mph fastballs coming in over the heart of the plate (and neither did the Sod Poodles).
As for Carroll, he hustled a single into a double and showed some good speed (even on the CS) but otherwise it was not a good game to really evaluate him (other than Leiter getting the K)
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