Yesterday’s Spring Training game against the Boston Red Sox allowed me to get my first glimpse of Manny Banuelos in game action, and it was hard not to come away impressed. Overall, Banuelos threw 2 scoreless innings, striking out 3 and allowing a double and a walk. He faced a lineup that was mostly major leaguers, and did not look overmatched. He threw 28 pitches, including 20 fastballs, 5 changeups, and 3 curveballs. The fastball ranged in velocity from 92-96 mph, with the change consistently in the low 80′s, and the curve in the high 70′s. He was able to throw all 3 pitches for strikes, and didn’t miss his location very often. Banuelos did a great job at keeping the ball down, both with his fastball and the offspeed pitches, which likely contributed to his effectiveness. I’m no mechanics expert, but his delivery looked smooth and easy as reported.
One observation is that Banuelos was pretty consistent about the location of his pitches. He kept most of his fastballs on the 3rd-base side of the plate (inside to right-handed hitters), while most of the curveballs and changeups were on the first-base side of the plate. I’m not sure if this is where he feels most comfortable throwing or if Russell Martin was just using these locations frequently, but I wouldn’t have minded to see some more variation on the fastball location. All but one of the hitters he faced were righties, but the pattern was similar against lefty Josh Reddick (whom Banuelos fanned on 3 consecutive fastballs away). As for pitch sequencing, he threw offspeed pitches both when he was ahead and behind in the count (including a 1-0 changeup to Jed Lowrie and a 2-0 curveball to Jason Varitek), which demonstrates that he is confident enough in these pitches to use them at any time.
Banuelos did a great job working the corners, and very few of his pitches wound up over the middle of the plate. He threw some beautiful fastballs low and right on the inside corner, and the hitter had no chance. The fastball velocity and command were as good as advertised, and the few changeups I saw were well located. The curveball looked pretty good, though it didn’t have a huge break, and its location was a little more inconsistent. The changeup still appears to be his best secondary offering (consistent with the scouting reports), but the curveball looks to be more than just a show-me pitch.
With his combination of plus stuff, good location, and smooth mechanics, Banuelos will be well-equipped for future big league success. Russell Martin compared Manny his former teammate Clayton Kershaw, high praise for the young Banuelos. While Manny doesn’t have Kershaw’s size or raw stuff, the combination of velocity, command, advanced secondary offerings and polish bodes well for a major league future sooner rather than later.
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15 Responses to Breaking Down Manny Banuelos’ Latest Outing
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I am trying not to let one outing get me too excited but it ain’t easy. He looked like a very exciting lefty prospect. Probably the best lefty prospect for Yankees since Leiter.
His changeup is clearly his best overall pitch, he missed wide with it early one once but after that he consistently located the pitch and every batter who saw one swung and either missed or grounded out to 3rd. It’s clear that they were all swinging at fastballs but receiving a nasty change at a good 12 MPH difference, it’s unheard of for a kid of 19 to have a changeup like that and be able to use it like that.
The best sequence of the night was to Darnell McDonald to finish his outing he comes out with a first pitch curve called strike one bottom middle, the second pitch is a called strike 2 change low and away perfect location and finish the AB with a 96 MPH fastball up (suppose to be out of the zone but ended just high and tight instead) and in swinging miss.
To have the confidence, pitch ability and control to pich backwards like that for a 3 pitch K it shows you what kind of future the kid has, I had seen him pitch before last night but how can you not want to be overjoyed by the outing.
The change is usually the most difficult pitch to master, and it’s his best pitch. He uses it like someone who’s much older, and he’s still just 19. His future couldn’t be any brighter.
He pitches with the experience of someone like Andy Pettitte yet decades younger and with better stuff.
Im usually a skeptic on young pitchers but damn its getting very hard to be reasonable about banuelos. with his stuff and not just control but serious command and pitchability it’s pretty clear he would be the third or fourth best starter on this team right now. its very tough to not want to use those 120-130 ip at the big league level.
again im usually very conservative with prospects but it’s clear this kid could pitch at the zML level right now. the stuff doesn’t lie. so impressed with the mechanics. command and control. wont happen but he is definitely the third best sp on the40 man right now. get ready for 150 ml ip for banuelos in 2012
I really hope you’re wrong and we don’t see 150 innings of Banuelos in the major leagues in 2012, rushing this kid for the sake of the rotation isn’t what’s best for the Yankees and throwing him into 150 innings at the big league level before his BODY is ready for it could spell disaster down the road.
I would much rather see a slower maturation process where at most he would throw 75-85 innings at the major league level in 2012 after 100 or so innings in Scranton, after that he would be ready to break camp as a starter in 2013.
I also tuned in last night and came away very impressed. During the broadcast Girardi mentioned Johan Santana in describing how Banuelos looked on the mound and I tend to agree with him. Not saying he’ll ever reach that level (though I hope), but you could definitely see it…smallish lefty, with a mid-90s fastball and bugs bunny change. Does anyone have any idea what his IP limit would be this season? If he performs well in the minors, I would hope he wouldn’t hit limit before we could call him up in August for the stretch run if need be.
His previous high was 109 IP, so figure around 140 IP this year. If he reaches that without any issues, he’d be set up for a rotation slot and 175+ IP in 2012.
Thanks…you think they skip starts and keep an eye on that IP limit to save innings for a potential stretch drive call up?
My initial thought would be no. But if ManBan continues to pitch like he did last night as ST gets later into March,I don’t see that the possibility of ManBan quickly graduating to AAA then to the Bigs is that far-fetched. He is that impressive,
It’s not a question of if he’s ready to face major league batters or not because I fully believe he is, the question is whether he is physically ready to handle 175-200 innings at the major league level and the answer is no. I don’t think it would be wise to use him in any kind of stretch run or in the playoffs either in the pen or rotation, those tend to be the most stressful innings of the season and it would occur while he smashed up against his inning cap. It could cause undo stress and lead to an injury of a 20 year old kid who’s body is not physcially done developing, even if he can help the team this year it would be selfish to risk his future for our today.
Personally I hope Manny pitches 80-100 innings in double A this season and finishes it with 40-50 triple A innings before being shutdown, after that we could do as we did with Betances and Montero last year and have them come up but not be on the roster so he can get a feel of the big league club house and stretch run enviorment. If all goes to this plan he would be pitching in Scranton to start next season and could pitch 100 or so innings in triple A while being left enough room left to throw another 75-85 innings at the major league level in 2012 before being a full time rotation member in 2013.
This plan would take a while but honestly is the right course, he would be 22 when he reached the rotation full time and still being younger Joba when we were debating his situation. It would allow him to taste each level before moving on and he would stack over 100 innings at every level before seeing major league time to build his arm and core body strength the right way.
I agree, this is probably the way to go. Hopefully the rotation is not in bad enough shape to force the issue.
That is a perfect world scenario. Next spring after CC opts out and joins the Phillies (so he can be with his friend Cliff Lee and get his at-bats in th NL – maybe their plan all along), and ManBan IS your second or third best pitcher on the team – do you send him down to AAA?
No question, yes! You don’t force the kid because of need, with a pitcher at this talent level, with his body and at his age you take the steps that are best for his career long term.
Also we won’t go into next season with Sabathia leaving and not adding someone, if we just couldn’t bring back CC no matter what I assume we trade whoever and whatever for Josh Johnson or someone along those lines.
However if we did go into next season with no CC but everything else the same I would start next season with Hughes, Burnett, Nova, Brackman, Noesi before putting Banuelos in the rotation, however there is no way we would do that without trading for someone.
Sabathia isn’t going to take nothing to try and fit into that rotation, he may leave (he won’t well pay whatever he wants to stay) but he won’t go to the Phillies.
On second thought, I shouldn’t dismiss Banuelos or Betances for the Yankee 2011 rotation completely. Let’s say Manny has a non-arm related injury (pulls a hamstring covering 1B) and misses a month. If he’s been dominating AAA hitters all year, now he won’t be able to log more than 140 no matter what, and might as well get a chance with the big league club. But performance will dictate that first and foremost, not the needs of the team. There’s no point calling someone up who isn’t ready, and there are any number of AAA pitchers who are already closer to the bigs than Manny.