Indians sign former first-rounder who threw 106 mph in workout video
Former first rounder Casey Weathers landed a minor league contract with the Indians after throwing 106 mph in a workout video last year.
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
Back in 2007, the Rockies made Vanderbilt right-hander Casey Weathers the 8th overall pick in the draft even though he was a pure reliever. Injuries and control problems have dogged Weathers over the years. He's never reached Triple-A, nevermind MLB.
Weathers, now 30, was nearly out of baseball a few years back, but he was able to catch on with the Indians last after they saw him thrown 105.8 mph in a workout video, reports MLB.com's Lindsay Berra. This offseason he upped it to 107.8 mph (GIF via MLB.com):
Obviously Weathers is not throwing 108 mph off the mound. He's doing a "pull down," in which the pitcher takes a crow hop and throws as hard as possible. The goal is to measure how hard a pitcher can throw when he puts everything he has into it.
"I got really fortunate in the last year. I basically got signed by the Indians off a pull-down video" said Weathers to Berra. "I can definitely get some translation to the mound as far as getting arm speed, but it's all about the confidence for me. I've been through all these injuries, and now I can throw a ball at max intent at very high output and I'm fine."
Weathers has been training at Driveline Baseball in Kent, Washington -- an excellent follow on Twitter (@drivelinebases), I might add -- using weighted balls to strengthen his arm after all his injuries. He uses heavier balls to improve velocity and lighter balls to work on arm deceleration. Fellow Indians righty Trevor Bauer is among Driveline's other patrons.
After being limited to only 10 1/3 innings in 2014, Weathers had a 3.83 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A with Cleveland in 2015. He's likely to open 2016 in Triple-A and could finally make his MLB debut, almost a decade after being drafted.
According to StatCast, the fastest pitch in baseball last season was a 103.9 mph chuck from Aroldis Chapman. The fastest outfield throw to home plate with a crow hop (similar to a pull-down) was 103.1 mph by Carlos Gomez.
