I attended Bowie’s opening night at Prince George’s Stadium on Thursday. RHP Kevin Gausman was on the hill, which brought a lively crowd to the park. Gausman was very lively himself.
Gausman is known to have a power arm and has already shown doses of his extreme talent. He has a big and tall frame with a clean delivery and a loose arm. He is explosive off the mound, which is probably why his fastball is such a deadly weapon.
On Thursday night, Gausman was able to attack hitters with his 4S and 2S, commanding both enough to pitch deep in the game. His stuff is so good that I basically look at how well he can command it at this stage in his MiLB career. I was surprised to see how well Gausman located his fastball on this night, as he was able to pound it inside and saw off a few batters. Compared to the last time I saw Gausman, there were less fastballs that he tried to blow by hitters. To me, this shows he is learning how to pitch a little more, and not just relying on his ridiculous stuff.
The change up was sub-par in the first inning. It seemed a little too “loose” and he could not command the four he threw. After the first, this pitch really improved. Gausman has proven in the past to have a plus change, and it was evident in the latter innings. I counted five changes in the dirt that he induced swings and misses on. He is able to pull the string on this and really fool batters with the 10+ mph difference between his fastball. This is a great combo and will take him far if he can command it down the road.
The slider is hard and has good movement. There is some late life to it, which seems to get the batter to lunge or roll over. This pitch is improving with each time out, and compared to what I heard from last time, it was much better.
Overall, Gausman is a true pitching talent. His stuff is right up there with anyone else in the minors. The most impressive part of the night was how he battled after two consecutive errors from his defense. You know what he did? Just struck out the next two batters and then got a weak grounder to second base. It’s impossible to not love the aggressiveness from Gausman. He attacks hitters at all times, and can boost the fastball velocity up if needed (usually not needed). It will not be long until Gausman is pitching in the majors. Hopefully he can fully command his arsenal at that level, although I am fairly optimistic after this outing.
FB: 94-96 mph and touched 98. His 2S was 90-94 with good life and movement.
CH: 82-84 mph with good depth and extremely offsets his FB.
SL: 82-88 with good tilt. Really more of a mix between a power curve and a slider.
1st Inning: 15 pitches (10 FB, 4 CH, 1 SL)
2nd Inning: 8 pitches (5 FB, 1 CH, 2 SL)
3rd Inning: 17 pitches (8 FB, 6 CH, 3 SL)
4th Inning: 21 pitches (16 FB, 3 CH, 2 SL)
5th Inning: 17 pitches (11 FB, 2 CH, 4 SL)
6th Inning: 14 pitches (8 FB, 3 CH, 3 SL)
Total: 92 Pitches, 66 Strikes, 58 FB, 19 CH, 15 SL
Delivery Times Recorded: 1.39, 1.43, 1.40
Key Stats: 12 Ground Ball Outs, 4 Broken Bats
Final Line: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 5 K, 0 BB
Tucker Blair was born and raised in the Baltimore area and currently lives in Elkridge, Maryland. He graduated from York College of Pennsylvania with a B.S in Entrepreneurial Studies and is currently a Project Analyst for a Management Consulting Firm in Federal Hill, Baltimore. Tucker was previously the Managing Editor at Orioles Nation, where he worked on prospect lists, reports, and analysis on the Orioles minor league system. He also previously wrote his personal blog, The EntreprenOriole.