Scott Barnes - Left-handed Pitcher
Born: 09/05/1987 - Height: 6'4" - Weight: 185 - Bats: Left - Throws: Left
| Year | Age | Team | Lvl | W | L | ERA | G | GS | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | AVG | BB/9 | K/9 | WHIP |
| 2008 | 20 | AZL Giants | R | 0 | 1 | 3.38 | 3 | 0 | 5.1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 11 | .167 | 7.1 | 19.4 | 1.37 |
| 2008 | 20 | Salem-Keizer | A- | 0 | 0 | 4.76 | 2 | 1 | 5.2 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 11 | .250 | 1.7 | 19.0 | 1.35 |
| 2008 | 20 | Augusta | A | 3 | 2 | 1.38 | 6 | 6 | 32.2 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 41 | .133 | 2.0 | 11.5 | 0.68 |
| 2009 | 21 | San Jose | A+ | 12 | 3 | 2.85 | 18 | 18 | 98.0 | 82 | 31 | 7 | 29 | 99 | .227 | 2.7 | 9.1 | 1.13 |
| 2009 | 21 | Kinston | A+ | 0 | 0 | 2.13 | 3 | 3 | 12.2 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | .280 | 4.4 | 7.4 | 1.64 |
| 2009 | 21 | Akron | AA | 2 | 2 | 5.68 | 6 | 6 | 31.2 | 35 | 20 | 7 | 14 | 29 | .292 | 4.0 | 8.4 | 1.57 |
| Totals | 17 | 8 | 3.10 | 38 | 34 | 186.0 | 155 | 64 | 15 | 61 | 201 | .226 | 3.0 | 9.7 | 1.16 |
Strengths & Opportunities: Barnes uses his size and extreme athleticism to attack hitters with all three of his offerings. He has a deceptive fastball that sits 90-92 MPH and touches 94 MPH, a plus changeup, and a developing slurvy curveball with the makings of being a plus pitch. He gets behind his fastball so it has a little bit of extra life and is explosive at the end because he throws it with a lot of conviction and the way it comes out of his hand it is not as easy to see. While he likes to work off his fastball, the changeup is considered his best pitch. He commands all three of his pitches well, fills the zone up with strikes, and has confidence using all three of his pitches in any count. At 21-years of age and 6'4" and 185-pounds he has the body to handle the rigors as a starting pitcher, and he projects as a middle of the rotation starter in the big leagues.
Barnes is special from a confidence and competitive standpoint, and has a boxer's mentality on the mound where he takes his competitiveness to another level. He is at the top of the Indians system when it comes to mound presence and competitiveness, and has no fear and goes right after hitters. While he looks very loose and relaxed on the mound, he has an edge to him. His athleticism is a big part of his success as it allows him to repeat his delivery well, and in turn he is able to effectively change speeds on his pitches. He likes to work fast and keep a good pace to the game, and is very distinct and focused on what he is trying to do. In his short time in the organization the Indians were impressed with his maturity of taking control of what he wanted to do and how he took command of his defense around him when he was on the mound.
Having only been in professional baseball for about a year Barnes is still growing and coming into his own as a pitcher. He has shown a big improvement in his strike throwing ability since college, in large part because he has done a much better job of being more aggressive and attacking the strike zone. Last year he did a good job commanding his fastball down in the zone to both sides of the plate to both left-handed and right-handed hitters and pitched in to both. He also showed an ability when behind in the count to throw his offspeed stuff. The question now is whether or not he can continue to be deceptive with his fastball and get swings and misses as he settles into Double-A this year and then Triple-A and potentially the big leagues down the road. He also needs to continue working on his curveball, a pitch the Indians think has the potential to blossom into a plus pitch and give him the three pitch mix needed to be a solid major league starter.
Outlook: The Indians scouted Barnes in 2008 before the draft so they already had a book on him, but they were impressed with his advancement and how quickly he transitioned to the professional game and harnessed the ability to become a good, consistent strike thrower. They like his feel and arsenal of pitches, and because of his athleticism think he has the chance to be a left-handed big league starter one day. He will open the 2010 season in the Double-A Akron starting rotation.
Photo courtesy of Ken Carr
Scott Barnes MinorLeagueBaseball.com page
Scott Barnes Baseball-Reference page
Scott Barnes MinorLeagueSplits.com page
Scott Barnes Pitching:
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6 comments:
Got to say I'm a bit surprised that Barnes appears here, particularly with where Eric Berger fell. I haven't seen either of them pitch, but from the description of their stuff, they seem to be very similar players. Berger, though, has had more or equal success to that of Barnes, just at an older age.
The age thing is key. Both reached Double-A at about the same time (August last year), and both will be the anchors of a good Double-A Akron staff in 2010. Tbe big difference though is Berger will pitch the 2010 season at age 24 and Barnes at age 22. That's significant. At age 24, there is not a whole lot of projection left, whereas at age 22 there is still some considerable room for growth. Also, Barnes has better stuff in that he has three above average pitches with one pitch a true plus offering already with his changeup, whereas Berger has three average to above average pitches and no plus pitch. They are both very good left-handed pitching prospects though.
Thanks for the reports. In all honesty, there's quite a bit of effort in Barnes' delivery, and his arm action is not clean; it's quite choppy. This is very apparent. Scouts will write him up as an injury risk due to these factors, and is perhaps a reason why he was an 8th round pick, rather than a 2nd-4th rounder. Also is perhaps why the Giants traded him.
The scouting reports you provide are good, but focus too much on strengths. Surely you're knowledgeable enough to notice the strengths, which is why I'm surprised that this very apparent weakness was overlooked.
Nice work, though.
Tommy is right to a degree: the motion does 'appear' jerky (particularly the head-jerk at release) but this could be partly perception. Often times left-handers seem to have more effort in their delivery than they really do because we are accustomed to seeing right-handers. Things look different and therefore they can be prematurely labeled as "bad".
I fell victim to it as well when I saw Barnes at normal speed. However, once you break down the elements of his motion, he looks alright. Barnes has excellent balance, clean arm-action, no hook, and not a whole lot of variability (hello Connor Graham!) in his slot and release. These are all big steps toward durability.
Finally, we should always remember that no two arms and bodies are alike. If we saw 100 hundred Tim Lincecum's we would predict that 100 of them would break down, but he hasn't and doesn't appear to be on his way to doing so.
There are exceptions to our rules; rules that we try to blanket across every prospect when in fact that's not fair nor accurate. Barnes' history has not displayed any significant injury risk and thus he is not any more of an injury risk than other 22-yr old starting pitchers with a limited time in professional ball...Of course, how much of a risk that actually is could certainly be debated.
Also, he was an 8th rounder due to lack of true top-shelf stuff and the fact that he came from St. John's which is no SEC, Big 12 or Pac-10 as far as competition is concerned.
The Giants traded him because of Cain, Lincecum, Bumgarner and at the time Alderson. They had higher-ceiling arms that were closer to the bigs. The Giants were making a run at the NL West and needed a righty bat. They traded from an area of strength in their farm system for an area of weakness at their Major League team. A pretty typical trade, and certainly not indicative of an inherent injury risk that the Giants were aware of and the Indians were not.
I appreciate the feedback. I think the angle of the video may be deceiving, as I don't recall watching him live every thinking he was a high effort guy with his delivery. The video does sort of make it look so, though. This is something I will surely note and pay more attention to this coming year, though have to say no one I have talked to has ever mentioned it as a concern. We'll see though! Thanks.
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