Matthew Liberatore was ranked eighth in one of many sport’s top-rated farm techniques when our 2019 Tampa Bay Rays High Prospects checklist was launched that January. Drafted sixteenth general the earlier summer time out of Glendale, Arizona’s Mountain Ridge Excessive Faculty, the now 25-year-old southpaw was assigned a 50 FV by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel. Twelve months later, Liberatore was no. 3 — nonetheless with a 50 FV — on our 2020 St. Louis Cardinals High Prospects checklist, which was printed every week after Liberatore was traded to the NL Central membership in a multi-player deal that included Randy Arozarena.
What did Liberatore’s 2019 and 2020 scouting experiences appear like? Furthermore, what does he suppose of all of them these years later? Wanting to seek out out, I shared a few of what Eric and Kiley wrote and requested Liberatore to reply to it.
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January 2019:
“He was arguably the very best highschool pitcher within the class, evaluated closely early on by the Giants (who picked second), earlier than settling into the 7-13 vary by June.”
“That’s fairly cool,” Liberatore replied. “I used to be extremely scouted in my senior 12 months — I feel I had over 100 scouts at my first begin — so I wouldn’t say it was one workforce specifically. I knew that I used to be going to be scouted via the primary spherical, however there wasn’t essentially any indication, proper up till the draft, as to who was going to take me.”
“When [Kyler] Murray was chosen, groups choosing behind Oakland out of the blue had entry to 1 extra participant than they’d anticipated… Different groups hadn’t thought of the likelihood that Libby would fall to them and both hadn’t achieved a variety of background work, or weren’t comfy with how he may alter their bonus pool math.”
“I undoubtedly thought the A’s had been a risk, and I used to be additionally advised the Pirates had been a risk,” Liberatore recalled. “A pair minutes earlier than the decide, we obtained a telephone name saying [the A’s] selected to go one other course. I discovered it was Kyler Murray. I figured he was most likely going to go within the first spherical of the NFL draft in a few months, so I used to be undoubtedly stunned by that. However I grew up going to Tampa each summer time to go to household, and had been to loads of Tampa Bay Rays video games all through my life, so to finish up going to them at 16 ended up figuring out fairly properly for me.”
“When Liberatore was at his greatest, he’d throw strikes with 93-97 for the primary a number of innings of his begins, present you a 70 curveball, a superb change, and alter the timing of his supply to toy with hitters.”
“Fairly just like now,” Liberatore opined. “I don’t essentially fast pitch or do the hesitation to change the hitter’s timing as a lot anymore, however that’s undoubtedly not one thing that I’m crossing off the checklist. So, fairly related scouting report back to how I pitch now.”
“At different occasions, he’d sit 88-92 with scattershot command and get too cute with Johnny Cueto shenanigans.”
“Hmm. I imply, I’m not going to agree with that, essentially,” Liberatore mentioned. “You have got days the place you’re feeling actually good and go on the market together with your greatest stuff, after which you’ve days the place you don’t really feel so good and have to seek out different methods to get hitters out. In case you take a look at my numbers in highschool, I did a reasonably good job of doing that. So, I wouldn’t say I obtained too cute with something.”
Requested if he might instantly handle the Cueto comp — the best way the veteran hurler will typically shimmy and switch earlier than delivering a pitch — Liberatore mentioned it was all about disrupting timing.
“Why do guys throw a breaking ball or a changeup?” he replied. “It’s all about altering timing, and that’s one other approach to try this. Some scouts didn’t prefer it. I had a man come into my home and inform me to give up doing that. But when it will get outs it will get outs, and Johnny Cueto was doing it on the highest stage of the sport. And there are different guys that do the identical factor. I don’t suppose that it ever damage me in any respect.
“I really used it as a reset a variety of occasions. If my common supply wasn’t working, I might go to a type of and discover the fitting really feel to lock me again in, sync me again up. I by no means considered it as attempting to trick the hitter exterior of it being no completely different than throwing a changeup or a breaking ball to throw off the hitter’s timing. I imply, I’ve undoubtedly toned it down since then. I do it not often, however like I mentioned earlier than, it’s definitely not one thing I’m going to get away from eternally.”
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January 2020:
“As a result of Liberatore’s fastball has sinker motion, the expansion of this changeup goes to be an important facet of his improvement, since these two pitches have related motion and can theoretically tunnel higher.”
“I throw two completely different fastballs,” Liberatore mentioned. “One in all them has sinker motion, and considered one of them is a bit more hoppy. I feel the event of the cutter has been greater than the event of the changeup for me. Having the ability to personal the internal half of the plate is one thing that has helped me fairly a bit.
“I’ve thrown each my entire life. The 2-seam, in the event you take a look at it in a vacuum, is a reasonably common analytical pitch. But it surely performs off the remainder of my arsenal. It doesn’t sink, nevertheless it runs into left-handers so I’m in a position to present them a slight distinction in form with out having to vary the rate.”
“His knockout curveball has all-world depth… it’s the kind of pitch that’s onerous to hit even when you understand it’s coming, nevertheless it is perhaps straightforward to put off of within the filth, as a result of its Loch Ness hump is simple to determine out of the hand.”
“Yeah. I feel all of it relies on how you employ your different stuff round it,” Liberatore mentioned. “In case you throw any pitch each single time, it’s going to be simpler to choose up. That’s why I’ve at all times saved that four-seam fastball, to have the ability to present guys one thing up within the zone, to tunnel off of that curveball. Yeah, it may be straightforward to put off at occasions, but when I begin touchdown it for a strike you need to honor it. I feel it could actually undoubtedly be a knockout pitch for me.”
“The entire bundle ought to lead to an above-average large league starter.”
“I’ll take that.”