Player Name: Ben Wright
Position: LHP
School: Briarcliffe
Ben is a 5’10” LHP with a slender frame. He will be entering his senior year at Briarcliffe College in 2016. In 2014 he was honorable mention All-American for compiling a 1.35 ERA and striking out 37 over 40 innings.
He pitched only from the stretch position. He gets set with his hands belt high and only briefly comes to the set position. His leg kick is not very only–barely above the waist. He keeps his eyes locked in on the target through out the duration.. He kicks his front leg out prior to the drop and drive. He gets tremendous drive from his back leg. The arm circle is as long as it can be which makes him very deceptive. He points it all the way back to left field. His front foot lands open which should be corrected. When his front foot hits the ground, his back leg is nearly scraping the ground reminiscent of Tom Seaver and his front leg is bent nearly 90 degrees which means his stride is terrific. He gets a full follow through and gets everything he can from his size. The arm angle is almost directly over the top. He falls off only slightly to the third base side.
He worked three innings in this game and allowed one run (unearned). He worked mainly in the 84-86 MPH with the fastball, showed off a mid 70s changeup briefly and a slurve that was in the low 70s.
His command was not terrific but he was very difficult to square up because of the tail and sink on his two-seamer. He didn’t even have to hit the target because nobody hit the ball off the barrel of the bat, aside from a single in his third inning. He walked two and allowed two hits in his three innings.
He primarily threw fastball early in the count and attempted to put away hitters with his breaking ball, but it missed low many times, leading to a huge wild pitch in the eighth inning that allowed the winning run to ultimately score on the following batter.
Wright has very good stuff, but he needs to refine the release point on his breaking ball otherwise hitters will recognize it and avoid it.
