re: Can Someone Explain…Re: Herring

good points; with that seems like Braswell would have left vs senior season (no leverage)

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Agreed, not that many hard-throwing LHPs (mid-90s or better) with nasty off speed on MLB rosters.

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Herring isn't a hard thrower, though.


I couldnt find season-long numbers, but I found a breakdown/summary of one of his appearances from this season and his average FB velocity was 92.2mph. That's 21st percentile among MLB starting pitchers. You can give him a bit of a bump because he's left handed, but you also have to factor in that he's likely to drop a tick or two given the jump from his college throwing schedule (typically 2-3 innings at a clip, plenty of rest days) to a professional starting pitcher's throwing schedule (a full 5-7 innings every 5th day). Just to illustrate: In 2024, Herring never exceeded 8 innings in a 7-day span, and only even hit 8 innings in a week once all season. MLB starters are expected to do that--more than that, in fact--every other week. It's pretty uncommon to see a guy maintain his velo as he reaches that type of workload. And unfortunately, Herring doesn't really have a body type that portends velo increases; he's pretty filled out.



Also: Herring has a really nice slider for a college pitcher. But 1) it's probably average or above average (i.e. 50 or 55) on a professional grading scale (and that's probably being a bit generous), which is less-than-ideal for your best pitch; and 2) its shape, coupled with griff's slightly cross-fire delivery, is gonna make it tough to throw to MLB righties, so he'll realistically need a lot of development from his changeup to make the big leagues as a starting pitcher.



None of this is stuff that will necessarily prevent him from being a good big league pitcher - but it gives him very little margin for error to get there. Rightly or wrongly, MLB clubs typically prefer the "ball of clay" type guy with raw ability that they can mold, even if they're not necessarily as good as a guy like Herring at present, to the we-know-what-he-is types like Herring. Hence, he got taken in the 6th.

Honestly I thought the Yankees would take more risks 11-20. They took all college guys. I will take an L on this one if true

To be fair, after my original thought of the Yankees easily being able to get him double and likely why he went, I backed off of that because you made some valid points in your thought process right or wrong.