What to Make of the Triple A Debut of the New York Mets’ Top Prospect

Brandon Sproat made his highly anticipated Triple A start last night. There was a lot to learn from his start.

The jump from Double A to Triple A is thought to be, by far, the hardest in the minor leagues. Sproat, for the first time, was dealing with a lineup of players who have been in the majors or who will be there very soon.

Sproat was dominant in Double A, but that does not mean that, from the start, Triple A will be a cake walk. There will be an adjustment period as Sproat gets used to new competition.

Sproat started his outing with a scoreless first inning. In that inning, Sproat’s fastball reached triple digits.

In the second, the 23 year old got his first strikeout. He blew a fastball by Bobby Dalbec. Sproat also struck out the next batter on the way to a 1-2-3 inning.

The third inning did not go as smoothly. The Worcester hitters seemed to figure Sproat out the second time through the batting order. After Sproat got the first out, six of the next seven baserunners reached safely. That included two home runs. By the time the inning was over, Sproat had allowed six runs.

Sproat pitched a scoreless fourth inning and got the first two batters in the fifth inning out, but he was pulled after allowing two baserunners.

Sproat’s final line was 4.2 IP 7 H 6 R 3 BB 4 K. Sproat had a terrible inning but, besides that, he had an ok outing.

It was interesting to see how Sproat pitched in the third inning. His fastball is supposed to be his dominant pitch. However, it was hit around early in the inning and Sproat basically abandoned it.

Sproat began to throw his changeup a lot. The pitch looked good. Sproat gets a lot of movement on it and the change of speed plays very well with Sproat’s fastball. Clearly, if the changeup is the pitch Sproat goes to when he is getting hit, Sproat feels very comfortable with it.

One of the most exciting things about Sproat being in AAA is that there is finally Statcast data for his pitches.

Despite its excellent velocity, Sproat’s fastball did not grade out very well. The shape of the pitch is not special. Of course, velocity does play and there are many examples of pitchers finding a lot of success with their fastball, even with a poor shape.

It was worrisome that Sproat left his high fastball down in the zone. It becomes a much more hittable pitch when it's left down. The lower fastball was hit hard yesterday. Sproat’s fastball can be an elite pitch if he keeps it high in the zone.

Sproat’s changeup graded out very well, better than most expected. Sproat did not have a great feel for his slider, but the metrics were good for its movement and sharp break.

Sproat has a quality pitch mix with excellent velocity. This poor debut is simply a bump in the road. Sproat will bounce back in his next outing.