Draft Watch 1998: Jeff Weaver

Jeff Weaver, RHP, Fresno State, Jr., 6-5, 200 lbs.

Weaver is a tall, lanky right hander with a loose arm, who pitches from a three-quarters delivery and sometimes drops down to the side against righties, a la David Cone. His fastball runs in the low 90s, and he features a slow curve as his #2 pitch. He also throws an occasional slider and straight change.

Rated the #11 college prospect by Baseball America in its preseason rankings, Weaver had slipped to #14 in the April 13 issue, despite posting a 4-3 record with a 2.78 ERA and 65 walks versus 19 strikeouts in 55 innings. In its early draft preview, Baseball America projected Weaver as the #22 pick overall in the 1998 draft. In the 1997 draft he was chosen in the 2nd round by the White Sox, #62 overall, but did not sign.

In the game I saw him pitch, against San Diego State at Tony Gwynn Stadium, he fell behind a lot of hitters, often missing high with his fastball. He also stayed on top of a few breaking pitches that just sort of tumbled toward the plate. And despite recording 6 strikeouts in 7 innings, he appeared to have trouble delivering the knockout punch at times. Of his 6 strikeouts, the first 5 were on called third strikes. His 2nd strikeout, which came in the 3rd inning, gave him 412 for his career and made him the Fresno State all-time leader in strikeouts.

The Aztecs wisely loaded their lineup with lefties, as Weaver had far greater success against right-handed hitters. His pattern against all hitters was more or less the same: fastballs early in the count, breaking balls late in the count. When he fell behind in the count, which was fairly often, he tended to rely on his fastball more.

After 6 innings the Bulldogs led the game, 3-2, and Weaver had already thrown 105 pitches. In the top of the 7th inning, Fresno State scored 4 times. After sitting and watching his team's offense explode for more than 20 minutes, Weaver came out to pitch the bottom of the 7th despite his team being up by 5 runs.

Weaver labored in the 7th, hitting a batter, allowing an infield single, and walking a batter to load the bases with two outs before inducing a ground ball to second base on a wicked 2-2 fastball that ran in on the Aztecs' cleanup hitter, a righty. He threw 28 pitches that inning, bringing his game total to 133.

Weaver came out again to start the 8th, but clearly he had lost it. His first two pitches weren't even close, and his third was hammered 420 feet to dead center. That was pitch #136, the last he would throw.

While Weaver's performance wasn't bad, it certainly wasn't as dominating as I'd anticipated. Of course I might have caught him on an off night, and perhaps my expectations for a projected 1st-round pick were unreasonably high. But against a fairly pedestrian San Diego State team, I really expected to see a man among boys, and I did not.

Here are the numbers from Weaver's game against San Diego State:

         IP   H   R  ER  BB   K  HR
         7+   9   3   3   2   6   2

         AB   H  2B  3B  HR  BB   K HBP  SH  SF
vs LHB   19   7   1   0   2   2   3   0   0   1
vs RHB   12   2   1   0   0   0   3   1   0   0

pitches thrown: 136
strikes: 83
fastballs: 87
slow curves: 43
sliders: 4
change ups: 2
sidearm: 14 (12 to righties, 2 to lefties)

batters faced: 32
1st-pitch strikes: 17
2-ball counts: 10
3-ball counts: 6

hits allowed: 9
2nd inning: 0-0 curve, single to left (RH hitter)
2nd inning: 2-2 curve, single to right (LH hitter)
2nd inning: 1-1 curve, single to right (LH hitter)
4th inning: 0-0 curve, single to left (LH hitter)
4th inning: 1-2 fastball, homerun to right, ~355 feet (LH hitter)
5th inning: 0-0 fastball, double to right (LH hitter)
6th inning: 2-1 curve, double to center (RH hitter)
7th inning: 3-2 fastball, single to shortstop (LH hitter)
8th inning: 2-0 fastball, homerun to center, ~420 feet (LH hitter)