Arizona Diamondbacks throw the numbers out for pitching prospects

Arizona Diamondbacks RHP Drey Jameson dazzled again in his second major league start, striking out seven and allowing just two runs in six innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday.

Through two outings, the 25-year-old has a 1.38 ERA, 12 strikeouts and just nine hits allowed in 12 innings.

His dominance may come as a surprise because of his 6.95 ERA at Triple-A Reno, but D-backs senior vice president and assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye said there’s more to his skill set than the raw data.

“Reno and the [Pacific Coast League] is a very hyper-offensive climate,” Sawdaye told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke Wednesday. “You have to look at the stuff and how [pitchers] execute pitches.

“All those guys –– [Ryne] Nelson, Jameson, Tommy [Henry] –– were executing really well. There would be home runs that they would give up that weren’t home runs in the big leagues.”

Jameson and catcher Carson Kelly both mentioned after his debut against the Padres that this isn’t Reno anymore. There were fly balls, particularly one from Manny Machado, that would’ve left the ballpark in Reno.

However, Jordan Luplow was able to catch it at the wall.

Sawdaye also attributed Jameson’s success to his competitive nature –– in tandem with Henry and Nelson.

“They’re trying to outduel each other,” Sawdaye said. “They’re really close, they feed off each other and they try to outduel each other and I think that really helps when you get in a big-league game.”

Jameson and Nelson specifically have flourished in their limited MLB sample size. They’ve combined for a 1.44 ERA and 18 hits allowed in 31.1 innings. This is despite having ERAs above five with Triple-A Reno.

However, the D-backs don’t necessarily need to throw the numbers out for position players in the PCL. While it’s important to look at the overall body of work for pitchers, the numbers don’t necessarily deceive the organization with hitters.

“It probably used to be a little more challenging when we didn’t have [batted ball data],” Sawdaye said. “But you can see the exit velo, the launch angles; you can kind of see which balls are hit really well and are real home runs.”

It’s been a second half full of exciting baseball from the wave of young talent joining Arizona’s MLB roster. Jameson is just the latest addition to flourish in the desert.