Two Days of Madison Bumgarner

[sherry2018love]

In the newest edition of 1 Night Only, I previewed a Fresno/Portland Triple-A game which was due to feature, among others, two of the most highly rated prospects in the San Francisco Giants system: 23-year-old catcher Buster Posey and 20-year-old lefty Madison Bumgarner.
For reasons that arent entirely clear, Bumgarners start which originally seemed set to take place on Saturday was pushed back to Sunday. (Exactly the same thing happened to Portlands Josh Geer, so lets not call the Conspiracy Police quite yet.) As a result, I ended up attending both Saturday night game (i.e. the main one Id previewed) and the Sunday day game (i.e. the one which Bumgarner started).
Posey caught both games and, in nine plate appearances, went 2-for-8 with a walk. A couple of those outs were strikeouts. Of his six balls in play, three of them were line drives. Generally, he resembled a very good baseball player.
My observations on Bumgarner want more attention, I think and, actually, attending both games allowed to have an interesting portrait from the young prospect.
Below, Ive broken my analysis of Bumgarner in to the 2 days I saw him, and also the two sides of his story performance and personality that seem to demand attention.
SundayThe main concern about Bumgarner, both throughout the second half of last season and also the start of that one, has been his velocity. After throwing in the mid-90s like a prep star as well as in the low minors, Bumgarner based on Baseball Americas Prospect Handbook pitched in the 88-90 mph range at Double-A and, per BIS and Pitchf/x data, averaged about 89 mph on his fastball in the 10 Major League innings (one start, three relief appearances).
Having been armed Sunday having a Jugs-brand radar gun thanks to Bubblegum Baron/Hefty Lefty Rob Nelson and the connections Im in a position to announce with a few certainty that Bumgarner was a tick or two higher in terms of fastball velocity, pitching within the 89-92 mph range for most from the game.
Thats not to say, however, that his outing was fantastic. Yes, he only allowed just one run on only four hits, but walked as many as he struck out (three of every) and conceded a couple of fly balls that, were they struck by anyone besides Sean Kazmar, might have been more damaging. Moreover, his fastball showed little in terms of movement, nor did his secondary pitches pose a challenge to the Portland batting order.
All of the conspired to net Bumgarner a mere five swing-and-mi ses on the day out of his 99 total pitches. (By comparison, Major League average to begin with is somewhere around 8.0 8.5%.).
Physically, Bumgarner looks like a talented pitcher. Hes 6-foot-4 having a fluid motion. Also, there are signs from todays performance that hint in the sort of general athleticism he po se ses: not only did Bumgarner pick off two (two!) runners initially, also, he fielded at least one bunt with what can only be described as aplomb, and even jacked a donger off Portland starter Josh Geer.
SaturdayNo, I didnt see Bumgarner pitch today, but heres something I did do: sit mere feet away from the young prospect because he charted pitches for teammate Kevin Pucetas, Fresnos starting pitcher.
And heres another person who was there, too, sitting right behind Bumgarner: a lady whom Im presuming to become Bumgarners wife, Ali. (In fact, even if the young woman wasnt his wife, the following points remain salient.)
Typically, Id feel absolutely zero compulsion to discu s a players personal life. And also the reader can rest a sured: Im not about to TMZ the frig outta this. I've no images of the couple will make Out City or freaking all up on each other, nor any reports to file for in regards to a domestic incident backward and forward.
Nor will it be nece sary whatsoever to invoke the newly wedded couple if it werent for the first three paragraphs of the recent article by Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News three paragraphs that read exactly like this:
SAN DIEGO Conspiracy theories abound as to why left-hander Madison Bumgarner suddenly became so hittable at Triple-A Fresno.
According to Brian Sabean, there is nothing physically the matter with the 20-year-old. But the Giants gm provided a frank a se sment of where things discontinued track for that heralded prospect.
Its this straightforward: He was preoccupied this winter and it cost him, Sabean said. He had personal stuff to straighten out, marriage, and he was ill-prepared in the future into spring training. I dont understand how much he threw to ready.
Its peculiar to me to the reader, Id imagine that marriage would be one of the personal things Madison Bumgarner had to straighten out this offseason. Within the interest of full disclosure, allow me to state that I, myself, get wed just this past August. Though my wife despises me and scowls visibly whenever I enter her type of sight, this really is almost exactly the way she behaved before we got married. This is indicative of other married people I know i.e., that, for whatever else happens after the marriage ceremony, straightening out isnt so much part of it.
So thats one thing.
The other thing is this, from another article by Baggarly back last month 20th, discu sing the interest rate at which Bumgarner had moved through the Giants system:
Bumgarner is around the fast track in other areas, too. He and his girlfriend of 4 years, Ali, get wed on Valentines Day.
Oh, yeah, we were ready, Bumgarner said. We were certain.
Among my peer group using one of my social cla s, in general to marry before the chronilogical age of 25 is similar to personal failure. Its as though one were admitting, I have nowhere else to visit and realize it. Might as well hand it off to another generation and hope they are doing better. Of course, I say this le s to create a blanket statement about marriage and more to suggest that I may not be the person to comment on this. Still, to declare, as a 20-year-old, that one is very sure about his marriage that sounds strange to these ears.
Beyond that, theres this final consideration: Bumgarners half-sister died during spring training. Thats different than getting married, I recognize, but inasmuch as it concerns something called emotions, it appears relevant.
This is kind of speculative, I understand, when it comes to gue sing whats wrong with Madison Bumgarner. But heres a larger point that isnt: regardle s of how bad Dave Allen wants baseball players to get replaced by human-looking robots, it hasnt happened yet. The thing we call make-up may not matter a lot at the Major League level if a player has gotten that far, hes done something right. For prospects, it likely means a lot more, though. And for 20-year-old prospects, this means more still, I bet.
How does this connect with a site (i.e. FanGraphs) thats made its reputation on providing white hot statistical analysis? Its this (I believe): the stats are just outputs. They describe whats happened sometimes on the more, sometimes on a le s, granular level. As for the inputs, those are harder to know, even with a scouting perspective. Certainly things like arm speed, strength of rotator cuff, and ability to repeat ones release point those are all important. But something like choice of mate might be another not only for Bumgarner, however for any player.
It hurts my brain to consider that is, the million and something uncontrolled variables that comprise a prospect so I wont obse s with it. Best, probably, to (a) acknowledge that in these matters, you will find both known unknowns and also some unknown unknowns, (b) accept that this is the case, and (c) turn ones attention to problems of the more solvable nature.

[myy123]

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