Player Name: Troy Simpson
Position: P
School: Longwood
Troy is a 2016 graduate of Longwood HS. From the windup he takes a step back towards first base as he prepares to begin his delivery. He has a very high and tight leg kick that gets above the letters. He turns in slightly towards second base to generate more torque and keeps his front foot pointed down with his back leg firm and he focuses on the ground. He then explodes into his falling action and picks up his target. Simpson cuts off his strides a little bit, he could generate more velocity by adding a few inches to that. He also lands with his front foot pointing towards third base. Some pitchers do this and it creates more deception, but for many pitchers it creates timing issues with the release point. He is a near max-effort guy, which is where most of his velocity comes from. His arm angle is high 3/4 and he finishes square to home plate.
In his one inning of work, he ran into a bit of trouble and allowed one run. The inning started with a ground ball to the first baseman on a 0-1 fastball at 78 MPH. He primarily used a two-seamer in this outing. The next batter drew a walk when he missed on four pitches high out of the strike zone. He did hit 83 MPH with the fastball but it was not close to the zone. He struck out the next batter on three pitches–the second one coming on a nice 70 MPH curveball that hooked in for a strike. He then struck him out swinging on a high fastball. The next batter jumped all over a fastball down the middle and deposited it over the center fielder’s head nearly 390 feet from home plate to score the run. He eluded more damage by retiring the next batter.
If Simpson adds to length to his stride and gets more extension on his pitches, he could definitely turn those 83s to 87 on the radar run and his curveball will become more effective. As it stands, he can be effective in middle relief at the college level with those two pitches at a Div-II.
