Since the Toronto Blue Jays selected Ricky Tiedemann in the third round of last year's draft, all the left-hander has done is made the pick look like a steal as he has rocketed through the farm system. (By ShiDavidi)
Certainly, there was a lot to like. Elite-calibre athlete. Six-foot-three frame to dream on. Fastball in the 88-91 m.p.h. range, complemented by a changeup with plus potential and a developing slider.Only the pandemic-related shutdowns that summer narrowed the draft, which went from 40 rounds to five, and the unexpected availability at No. 5 overall of the pricy Austin Martin further choked off opportunity.
Aversa had full conviction in Tiedemann from the jump. Not even he anticipated a trajectory like this. When he first joined the Blue Jays after signing for essentially slot at $644,800, Tiedemann “didn’t really have a program.” He’d done some higher-level work on his mechanics, learning how to use his lower half more effectively, but during his year at Golden West Junior College, he was essentially doing the same things he was doing during high school at Lakewood.
“He's a young kid and for a young man to be as focused on the process of getting better, at times it can get lost in the level of talent he possesses,” says Canadians pitching coach Phil Cundari, who worked with Tiedemann in the spring before getting him in Vancouver. “He's been dominating and it seems like he still has another gear, I believe, that he hasn't touched. That will come with the challenge when he gets to another level.
He’s done that and more so far this season. In six low-A starts with Dunedin, he allowed only six runs on 11 hits and 13 walks in 30 innings of work while striking out 49 batters. At high-A Vancouver, where he’s 4.2 years younger than the league’s average age, he’s allowed 12 runs, 10 earned, in 37.2 innings across eight starts, walking 12 and striking out 54.
Earlier this season Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins raised eyebrows when he said the teenager “has the stuff to compete right now in the major leagues,” but that “it's a matter of just being really consistent with it and building up a workload.” Matt Buschmann, the club’s bullpen coach and minor league pitching co-ordinator, says the priority “is getting him used to playing professional baseball and pitching for five months straight and dealing with the ups and downs that the season brings.”
“The other scouts are like, ‘God, you stole him there. I loved that guy,'” he says. “It was just luck of the draw, you know?”
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