Springfield Cards Pitcher

[Phil Lilley]

Francisco Samuel

http://springfield.cardinals.milb.com/milb...&pid=501740

This guy pitched one inning last night. All night I was watching the speed gun... no one pitched over 90, most 84. This guy came in and his first pitch was 00. We thought... was that 100? Then 103! Then 104!!

He couldn't throw strikes though.

Just not sure if the gun was right. If so, he may go places if he can learn to control location.

[smallmouthjoe]

Control comes with maturity. He's still pretty young and he'll have to learn to sacrifice some speed for control.

[tippet7]

[ekl-stl]

Samuel was one of the Players to be Named Later in the deal for DeRosa. Jess Todd was the complement player that joined Chris Periez in Cleveland. If that gun is close to being right, then that is awesome. You can not teach speed but control "can" be learned... Thanks for the tip Phil.

[OzarksRiverman]

Samuel was one of the Players to be Named Later in the deal for DeRosa. Jess Todd was the complement player that joined Chris Periez in Cleveland. If that gun is close to being right, then that is awesome. You can not teach speed but control "can" be learned... Thanks for the tip Phil.

So is Samuel headed to Cleveland? I've seen him pitch several times this year and he's cracked 100 mph a bunch. And he's not a real big guy, just has a corkscrew delivery and unleashes it!

[ekl-stl]

No. Jess todd completed the deal, so no additional players are going to Cleveland.

[TroutRinger]

I sure wouldn't want to be standing in the box with a guy throwing 100+ heat with no idea where it is going. I would be like John Kruk in the 93 All-Star game against Randy Johnson.

[smallmouthjoe]

This is awesome, I want a poster of this.

[slabseeker]

He might be like "Wild Thing" Mitch Williams, the old Phillies reliever. Batters did not want to stand in and face him cause he threw so hard and was so wild. One coach used to tell batters to stand on the plate, he won't throw it there.