For whatever it's worth, I watched Daniel Moskos pitch for three innings today against Mississippi State. He wasn't great. It's been reported that he throws hard, but he doesn't. Today his fastball was mostly 87-89 MPH; he dialed it up to 91 a few times. His change is okay. His breaking ball clocks in at 75-79 and doesn't break a ton. He had a hard time getting his breaking ball over the plate, too. Maybe he used to throw harder, but I don't see how he profiles as a major-league closer. But that's how the Bucs hope to use him:
"We like him in both roles," Creech said. "[But] I think the role he's probably going to end up [in] is closer. He has the mentality for it. He's an aggressive kid. He goes after hitters. He throws strikes. He has power pitches."
"I'm open to however the organization wants to use me," Moskos said. "I'm excited about the chance. If [a closer] is how I'm needed, I'm completely fine with it."
Moskos, 6 feet 1, 200 pounds, throws a good moving fastball that tops at 95 mph and might consistently clock at 95 in a couple of years. He has a "wipeout" slider, according to one evaluator, that he throws at 85-87 mph.
I don't doubt the Post-Gazette's reporting, but that's just not anything like the pitcher I saw today. Again, maybe he threw harder earlier in the season, particularly since he started the season in the pen. But today, he wasn't a "power" pitcher, he didn't get within sniffing distance of 95, and not only did he not have a "wipeout", 85-MPH slider, his breaking ball wasn't even really a slider - it broke in more of an over-the-top sort of way, like a curveball. If he did throw a slider at any point in the first three innings, it was hard to identify it as such. I don't know - maybe he didn't throw it for some reason. But I didn't see anything here worth being too impressed with.
Seriously, I don't know what's going on here, and I don't know what's sadder - that a team in its 15th straight losing season drafted a frigging reliever in the first round, or that their reasons for doing so were apparently so wrong.
Some other notes on the draft:
-P- WTM thinks Dave Littlefield may be thinking very short-term with this pick, which isn't especially surprising.
-P- WTM also is working on writeups of the other players the Pirates drafted so far. The pitcher we got in the second round, Duke Welker, also looks like a low-upside pick.