Saturday evening I ventured to Prince George’s Stadium to watch the Bowie Baysox host the Washington Nationals Double-A affiliate, the Harrisburg Senators. In addition to a beautiful spring evening and a strong postgame fireworks display, I was treated to a quality pitching matchup, pitting Orioles prospect LHP Chris Lee against a solid Senators’ lineup. Below are my scouting notes on several Baysox players and potential future Orioles.
Chris Lee LHP Bowie Baysox
Acquired by Baltimore from Houston in exchange for two 2014-2015 international bonus slots, Lee was drafted by the Astros in the 4th round of the 2011 draft. The 23-year-old is listed at 6-3 180lbs with lean legs and a high waist, giving him the potential to add positive weight as he develops physically. Lee is a good athlete who fields his position well and shows particularly strong athleticism for a pitcher.
Lee pitches from a semi-windup and utilizes a three-quarters release point from his lightning-fast left-handed arm. He has a long arm action during his delivery and reaches the infamous “Inverse W” position at foot strike. There is some crossfire in his motion, which causes deception especially for lefties but also hinders his command of the strike zone. Lee repeats his delivery well but could see improvements with some slight tweaks to his motion.
Saturday Lee was featuring a 3-pitch arsenal consisting of a 4-seam fastball, slider and a changeup. His fastball sat 92-94mph most of the evening, touching 96mph several times, with some natural armside movement. Additionally Lee showed a hard-biting 83-86mph slider with strong 1-7 breaking movement inside to righties: at times the pitch more resembled a cutter with the late-breaking movement into righties. Finally Lee threw a handful of firm 82-84mph changeups with decent arm speed but inconsistent results. His command and control are still below-average, although he shows a willingness to work both sides of the plate and likes pitching inside. Overall I feel comfortable putting a “6” on the fastball, a “50/55” on the slider and a “40” on the changeup, along with “45/45” command and control of the strike zone.
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The Orioles were roundly criticized at the time of the deal, but Chris Lee is going to make Baltimore’s front office look quite savvy in the near future. Lee should spend most of 2016 at Double-A Bowie, with the potential to reach the majors late this season or in 2017. There is a legitimate debate between Hunter Harvey, Michal Givens and Chris Lee for Baltimore’s top pitching prospect, but there is no question he is a top-5 prospect in the Orioles’ farm system.
Short Hops
During the 8th inning when the scouting section often begins checking their phones, right-handed reliever Stefan Crichton entered for Bowie and immediately woke up the scouts, flashing a 92-94mph fastball, touching 96mph, with a low-80s slider. He kept the fastball down in the zone with some natural sink and peppered the zone with strikes. Further, there was some deception in his delivery that made it difficult especially for righties to see the baseball. Drafted in the 23rd round back in 2013 from Texas Christian, Crichton has a chance to develop into a righty specialist. Baltimore has done a nice job in recent years of “creating” relievers and Crichton could be a name to remember down the road.
Former THE NatsGM Show guest and Bowie second baseman Jeff Kemp is struggling to get comfortable at the plate, but impressed with his outstanding defense at second base. He showed a solid arm in turning the double play and made several plays ranging far to his left. The 26-year-old does not have an above-average tool, but his grinder mentality and defensively versatility could allow him to reach the majors in the future.
* Thanks to Matt Wilson and the Bowie Baysox for their gracious hospitality. *