Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on RHP Patrick Weigel

Scouting Report

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves 2012 Prospect Review: Joey Terdoslavich
• Braves News: Braves sign Fuentes, Andruw’s HOF candidacy, more
• The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
• Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
• Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves

To take a good look at Weigel, I reviewed six of his starts, three with Rome and three with Mississippi. In those six starts, he went for 40 1/3 innings, a 2.01 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, and a 10/39 BB/K ratio.

Size/Delivery

Weigel is listed at 6’6 and 220 pounds. He is certainly physically mature, and as he turned 22 during the season, that’s not a surprising thing for him to be physically where he will be long-term. He’s built with long arms and legs and uses these both well in his delivery.

Weigel comes from a low 3/4 arm slot, and where I would compare his arm slot to is where you would normally see a third baseman sling the ball across the diamond from. He has a quick delivery, pulling his left leg over past his right knee, which generates extra torque in his delivery (and likely extra velocity). He repeats that arm slot very well with every pitch.

Out of the stretch, one of the major differences you’ll see is that he does not get the leg back as deep, but he seems to tuck his body in tighter and then explode out of that to generate the same force and velocity that he gets out of his wind up.

Pitches

The signature pitch that everyone knows on Weigel is the fastball. It’s a brilliant pitch, touching over triple digits in short bursts (reports of 101-102 at the Southern League All-Star game this summer), but he’s been able to sustain upper 90s deep into games. The big thing with the fastball is not just the velocity, it’s the surprising command of the pitch that he has. Most guys coming from that low 3/4 arm slot struggle with a “sling” motion of their fastball and even if they have control of the pitch into the zone, they cannot command from that angle. Weigel commands the pitch well from the slot, and working with Joseph Odom at AA Mississippi (one of the better defensive catchers in the Braves system) and Willians Astudillo (one of the best framing catchers in all of the minor leagues according to Baseball Prospectus’ metrics this season) has brought out that command even more so. The fastball has some natural arm side run and sink, and if he struggles with control or command, it’s typically that the run is too much too the arm side.

The slider has a solid 12-6 break, but more from about thigh high to the knee cap when he’s really going well with the pitch. I’ve seen multiple velocity reports that have the slider in the upper 80s, but the more frequent reports have it sitting in the lower 80s. The break seems to come late, and he spots the slider well to the arm side of the plate and middle of the plate.

Weigel’s curve is probably the pitch that has taken the biggest step forward this season in both effectiveness of the pitch and his control of the pitch. It’s not a looping curve like many in the system, but it’s a hard curve variety, and it matches with his slider in a way that leaves many batters flailing. The curve has a bit of 11-5 break to it, but he seems to move the pitch well across the zone. He does well generating velocity on the pitch to really have the slider and curve be tough to distinguish until late as well.

The change is a pitch that was graded as below average by many coming into the season, at best. However, in my viewing, the biggest issue in his change is a lack of movement. He has good repetition of arm movement and speed with the change. He also has more control than command with the pitch, which leaves it still with room to grow, but I’d certainly grade it as an average offering at least right now.

Video

Next: Future outlook