Wei-En Lin is establishing himself as a prospect to observe within the Athletics system. The reason being largely two-fold. Signed by the AL West membership out of Taiwan final summer time, the 19-year-old southpaw has been opening eyes with a formidable mixture of strike-throwing and a capability to overlook bats. Over 77 1/3 innings between Low-A Stockton and Excessive-A Lansing, Lin has logged a 33.8% strikeout charge and a 5.5% stroll charge. Not too long ago added to The Board with a 40+ FV, he at the moment ranks 14th within the A’s system.
His arsenal includes a four-seam fastball, a slider, a curveball, and a changeup, the final of which Lugnuts pitching coach Dave Burba considers the very best of the bunch. The erstwhile massive league hurler described the pitch as “soiled,” including that Lin not solely will get good motion with it, he delivers it with good arm pace. Eric Longenhagen likes it as nicely. Requested for his evaluation, our lead prospect analyst shared the next:
His changeup is sweet. It has massive parachute motion, and it actually dies because it reaches the plate. It’s sluggish, like 76 mph on common, and that’s bizarre sufficient to create some uncertainty as to the way it will play in opposition to massive leaguers. It undoubtedly has bat-missing motion, although.
The pitch in query is gripped in an atypical method. Once I talked to Lin final week, I realized that he stopped throwing a splitter on the finish of Could and now assaults hitters with a Vulcan.
“Our pitching coach in Low-A Stockton, Jim Gott, advised me that my splitter is just not good for my arm,” defined Lin (Lin speaks some English, however carried out most of this interview via interpreter Danny Sung). “He additionally thought my splitter was too arduous to manage, in order that they took it away. I switched to a Vulcan changeup, which I really feel I can management higher.”
Lin’s curveball grip can be new this 12 months. Described by Longenhagen as having “fairly good snap to it,” it’s now of the spiked selection. Because the younger left-hander put it — sans translation — “I’ve switched to a knuckle.”
Including a extra horizontal providing to his arsenal is one in all his goals. Lin’s 82-mph slider is cutter-ish, and he “needs an enormous one, a slider-sweeper.”
After which there’s his four-seam fastball, which lacks elite velocity however nonetheless grades out as above common. Lin topped out at 93.6 once I noticed him pitch at West Michigan — he was reportedly reaching 95 earlier within the 12 months — however as Eric defined, giddy-up isn’t what makes it efficient.
“His fastball undoubtedly performs,” Eric opined. “It rides, reportedly as much as 18 inches. It has powerful angle to the highest of the zone, producing a swing-and-miss charge above 30%. He additionally throws a ton of strikes with it — he has a 75% strike charge with the fastball.”
Lin’s total strike percentages undoubtedly jumped out to me once I checked out his recreation logs. In his final recreation in Low-A earlier than being promoted to Lansing in mid-June, he threw 25 of 37 pitched for strikes whereas retiring all 9 batters he confronted, six of them by means of the strikeout. Two outings earlier, he’d thrown 29 of 36 pitches for strikes. These weren’t precisely outliers. Lin’s ledger is laden with zone-filling excellence.
In fact, the extent to which it qualifies as excellence is subjective. As I suspected he may, Burba cited simply that once I requested what he considers the fast-rising prospect’s subsequent step within the improvement course of.
“Discover ways to execute off-speed pitches out of the zone,” the pitching coach advised me. “That’s largely the place he’s been getting beat. He’s throwing too many strikes in leverage counts — not essentially chase pitches, or strike-to-ball pitches the place a hitter has to make a swing determination. They’re pitches within the zone the place the hitter has to swing, and a few of these are getting hit arduous, and others are getting flared over the infield with defend swings. However at his age, and together with his capacity, it’s coming.”
Lin acknowledged the necessity to work extra out of the zone once I requested if he has truly been throwing too many strikes. However whereas he’s been “doing higher with that” in comparison with Stockton, it’s not as if he’s in peril of morphing into Mitch “Wild Factor” Williams or Matt Younger. Latest Lansing outings embody 27 strikes out of 35 pitches, and 25 strikes out of 34 pitches.
Acclimating to skilled baseball in an MLB group is definitely a contributing issue to his excessive strike totals, although studying how not to throw strikes is preferable to an innate lack of ability to search out the zone. Previous to coming over to the U.S., overwhelming opposing batters wasn’t a lot an issue. That’s one of many causes he’s right here and never pitching again in Taiwan within the Chinese language Skilled Baseball League. Lin is just too proficient to have stayed near residence. Not that there weren’t abroad affords. Japan’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks confirmed explicit curiosity, however Lin finally opted to come back stateside, selecting the A’s over a handful of different MLB organizations.
He admits that his first professional season has been difficult. Lin shared that he has felt fatigued because the season is nearing its finish, which is a purpose he intends so as to add weight to his 6-foot-2 body. At the moment 196 kilos, he wish to bump that as much as 210. He additionally acknowledges that continued changes to his arsenal and assault plan shall be essential if he hopes to proceed to have success. Nearly as good as he’s been, the extent of competitors is just going to get higher.
“There’s nonetheless rather a lot to be taught,” stated Lin, who has a 3.84 ERA and a 3.17 FIP to go together with his aforementioned numbers. “The info is deeper right here than [in Taiwan]. There’s TrackMan. The hitters are additionally extra highly effective, they usually make contact. That makes pitching extra of a problem. It’s good to pitching right here, although. I’m having fun with it.”