John Sickels' Comments on Donnie Veal

by poobah on Nov 12, 2009 11:03 PM EST

From Sickels Blog:

Veal looked terrific. His mechnics have been COMPLETELY rebuilt, much smoother, much better command, throwing FB in the low 90s with better breaking stuff than he’s shown in years.

Pretty nice words to hear from a guy like Sickels. It's encouraging, and combined with the other stuff written about Veal and his stats so far, it makes me feel like there may be something there. I guess well have to wait to the regular season to see if this is for real.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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Wow. What a bonus that would be to have Donnie Veal as a solid starter in our rotation. Looking at his numbers in winter ball, it’s pretty obvious that he has figured something out with his command. At times last year he would come in and not be able to find the plate at all. Encouraging stuff from Donnie.

by curvefan on Nov 13, 2009 4:54 AM EST reply actions

Confirmation elsewhere

BA had similar comments. It quotes Bob Milacki as saying “I would have never thought he had any problems after seeing the way he’s pitched here,” said Milacki, who coached this summer at the Phillies’ low Class A Lakewood affiliate, “because he hasn’t had any problems since he’s been here. He just got locked in and he’s tremendous.”

Viva Clemente!

by Roberto on Nov 13, 2009 12:21 PM EST reply actions

Then of course there's yesterday

2.1 innings pitched, 5 hits, 3 R, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HR. But Tony Watson? is doing well.

Viva Clemente!

by Roberto on Nov 13, 2009 12:34 PM EST reply actions

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2010 Cy Young Winner!

Too bold? Seriously, notes like this are great to see. Its nice to see a guy with great stuff turning it around a bit.

by NastyNate82 on Nov 13, 2009 2:25 PM EST reply actions

As I think Charlie said somewhere, it makes a good story. I doubt much of it translates. I’d be very surprised if Veal suddenly figured it all out… Still, its good to see progress, and hopefully, he can turn in a solid season in AAA… I can’t see him coming to Pittsburgh too quickly at this point in time…

by BurgherKing on Nov 13, 2009 5:01 PM EST reply actions

The AFL is such a hitter’s league that I think someone turning in lights-out pitching stats should carry a lot of weight.

Veal has the best WHIP of any starter in the league and a K/BB ratio better than 3 in one of the biggest hitter-friendly environments in the game. At what point do we take it seriously?

http://fanhuddle.com/pittsburghpirates

by Nate Rose on Nov 14, 2009 1:57 AM EST reply actions

Donald Veal's

class A stats are impressive, but his walk rate has always been over 4.5/9… as he’s advanced, the walk rate kept going higher… he hit a wall in AA, repeated the level, stayed stuck at the wall… and the problems continued after being picked up by the Bucs, and playing in Indy… The 3:1 K/BB ratio is great, but the BB rate is likely still high and if it remains that way, it will be hard for him- essentially, a very large part of his WHIP is coming from the WIP, which is not good at all…

I think everyone is happy that he’s doing it, the only issue is that we’d like to see him do it at AAA consistently… his AFL record is great but its still 19 IP only… if he can sustain the WHIP, BB/9(~2.5 which is still a bit high, but great for him), K/9 (8.5) over say 80-100 IP, there will likely be much more excitement…

by BurgherKing on Nov 14, 2009 8:00 PM EST up reply actions