Prospect of the Day: Zach Britton
by John Sickels on Apr 11, 2011 10:00 AM EDT
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Zach Britton, LHP, Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore fans are excited about the arrival of 23-year-old southpaw pitching prospect Zach Britton. Originally slated to begin the year with Triple-A Norfolk, Britton had a superb spring training (1.35 ERA, 13/5 K/BB in 20 innings) and was the obvious choice to move into the rotation when Brian Matusz went down with injury. A third round pick in 2006 from high school in Weatherford, Texas, Britton was excellent last year in Double-A (2.48 ERA, 68/28 K/BB in 87 innings) and Triple-A (2.98 ERA, 56/23 K/BB in 66 innings).
He relies on a 90-93 MPH sinking fastball as his bread-and-butter, collecting plenty of ground balls. His slider and changeup are both quality pitches, giving him a three-pitch assortment. As long as he maintains his control and has a competent defense behind him, Britton should be effective. While a trip back to Triple-A is possible when Matusz returns, Britton has the stuff and command to be a very effective starter and looks ready to thrive right now. I gave him an aggressive Grade A- in the 2011 Baseball Prospect Book.
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Not to overreact to two starts
..but I have a feeling that Zach Britton is in the majors to stay.
Based on his first two starts...
…he seems to have some kind of plus movement on every pitch he throws. Yankees batters in Spring Training were raving about how everything he throws has a lot of very late movement. Also, an unexpected surprise, which may or may not change over time, is that he’s been hitting 94-96 mph pretty regularly. At times, it seems as though he’s hitting 96 mph on the 2-seamer.
Since it’s his first few starts, it’s hard to nail down exactly what to expect from him, but he’s an exciting arm who should be ranked up there with Matusz in terms of potential.
I actually like him better than Matusz
He throws harder & has at least a little more upshot to me.
There's a lot of hype right now about Britton...
…I’ve seen too many “guys who can be special” come up and not amount to much, in spite of great early returns. The difference to me right now is that Matusz has multiple quality pitches, can throw all of them for strikes, and has been tested in the majors in a variety of situations. With Britton, he hasn’t been tested yet. He has great stuff and velocity, but we won’t really know what he is until the league makes it’s adjustment. Even mediocre pitchers are worth a good first run of 10 or so starts before they start to regress to their career levels.
Wieters comment
I know we should not necessarily read too much into comments made by a pitcher’s own catcher, but Wieters called Britton a pitcher “this league has never seen” (or something like that). A lefty sinkerballer who throws 94-96. I think Britton can be something special.
How long is Matusz out?
Should make a good 1-2 punch with Britton.
To me this is the bottomline...
In the best years of the Orioles past, their strength wasn’t in how good a given ace produced Ace stats. It was in the fact that, on any given day, a quality pitcher could pitch a quality game. So it makes little sense to me who is better between Matusz and Britton. If they are both front of the rotation type pitchers, that’s a huge deal right there.
I'm really high on this kid
I’m aware he could regress after the leagues seen him some, but I think he’s going to be real good.
I've loved Britton for a while now
When you can combine a top-notch sinker with any sort of plus breaking pitch, you’re talking about a potentially very good pitcher. Britton has that sinker, a good fastball, the above-average-to-plus slider, a developing change, and the control/command to put it all together.
I know Matusz’s upside is a tad higher because of the strikeout potential, but I think Britton might end up being the better pitcher overall in the end.
Yes, my real name is actually Satchel.
I'm a columnist for Beyond the Box Score, an SB Nation blog.
Oh, I'm on Twitter, too.
I have heard some people mention...
…Brandon Webb or Josh Beckett as comps in terms of style of repetoire and quality of stuff.
The awesome thing about Britton's two starts...
is how entirely different they were. In his first start, he mostly used his four-seamer and he went to his off-speed stuff fairly often. In his second start, he threw almost all sinkers, with a few changes and sliders mixed in. It seemed like both of these strategies worked well for him.
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