DrB's 2015 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #3 Kyle Crick

Kyle Crick, RHP.  DOB:  11/30/1992.  6'4", 220 lbs.

2012 Low A:  7-6, 2.51, 111.1 IP, 5.42 BB/9, 10.35 K/9
2013 High A: 3-1, 2.87, 68.2 IP, 5.11 BB/9, 13.79 K/9
2014 AA:       6-7, 3.79, 90.1 IP, 6.08 BB/9, 11.06 K/9

Kyle Crick was drafted in the supplemental first round in 2011 out of HS in Oklahoma.  I believe he only started pitching in his junior or senior year.  He's a big kid who throws hard. He bears a striking resemblance to Matt Cain although he is slightly taller and leaner.  Crick pitched just 7 innings over 7 appearances the summer after the draft.  His first full season was spent in Augusta in 2012 where he dominated, albeit with a generous walk rate.  He moved up to San Jose in 2013 where he again dominated, but missed 6 weeks early in the season with a strained oblique.  His AA season in 2014 was a bit more of a struggle as his BB/9 crept up above 6 and he was moved to the bullpen for the AA playoffs.  Despite is struggles with command, there were some positives.  He ERA was solid if not dominating.  He also had the highest K/9 of any pitcher with at least 90 IP across all AA leagues and was a full 1 K/9 above the second place guy.

I saw him pitch in the game where he strained his oblique.  He pitched just 2 innings of that game but looked good.  I saw him again in the Cal League playoffs where he looked good for 3 innings but then ran into trouble in the 4'th and was not able to get out of the inning.  What I saw in that game was very similar to what we used to see from Matt Cain early in his career where batters couldn't hit the fastball but he also didn't completely miss bats with it either.  Batters kept fouling the FB back and he didn't have enough secondary stuff to make them pay for sitting on the FB.  The pitch count ballooned, he got frustrated and the command got more shaky as the inning went on.

Crick has the elite fastball that sits 95-96 and touches 98.  His changeup goes 90-91 MPH which probably needs more separation in velocity from the FB.  He's got a good breaking ball, but without enough command to make it a put away pitch.   Based on my relatively small observation sample size, my hypothesis is that Crick is not wild with the FB so much as he just does not have a wipeout secondary pitch that he can consistently go to if hitters are fouling off the FB.  He then starts trying to overthrow the FB and everything comes unraveled.  Of course, the K rates would tend to refute that idea, but the FB is really very good and the secondary stuff is good enough to get K's some of the time, but maybe not consistently.

It is very hard to find comps of pitchers who have both K and BB rates as high as Cricky although there are plenty of examples of pitchers with BB/9's in the upper 4's who went on to MLB success.  Felix Hernandez had a BB/9 of 4.91 in AAA.  Matt Cain was at 4.19 in AA and 4.50 in AAA.  Robert Stephenson who is considered a top prospect in the Reds system had a BB/9 of 4.87 with a K/9 of 9.22  and an ERA of 4.74 at the same age in AA last year.  So, while the control/command issue is one that needs to improve, I don't think it is quite the daunting problem that it has been made out to be in some circles.

Crick may just need more time to refine his secondary stuff.  He was one  of the younger players in AA last year at age 21 so age is not an issue yet.  He could repeat AA and still be relatively young for the level.  If he fails to make progress with the current secondary pitches, he may need to try using a cutter as his breaking pitch and maybe a splitter instead of the changeup.  He still has a very high ceiling with plenty of time to figure it out.