Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospect – #32 Zachary Bird Scouting Report

Zachary Bird Scouting Report

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I wanted to get a good look at Bird due to the concerns I had with his control numbers, so I captured his last three starts in the Dodgers organization and all three of his starts with the Braves as well. Over those 6 starts, Bird went 1-4 over 30 2/3 innings with a 3.82 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and 20/29 BB/K ratio.

Bird is listed at 6’4 and 205 pounds. He looks just incredibly athletic on the mound, and the reports of him being very athletic certainly looks the part when you see him on the mound. He could probably add another 15-20 pounds of muscle without overloading his frame. His delivery stays high in his wind up with a high 3/4 to over-the-top arm slot when he releases the ball.

Right away is when you see the issues as you watch the motion. Bird steps a shade toward first base as he moves toward the plate, not really using all of his long legs in his stride, which would be something you’d figure could add deception and the appearance of the ball “jumping” at hitters with his height and long limbs. His slight step toward first opens his hips and starts the issues in his delivery. After he releases the pitch, he falls off toward first base, but very inconsistently. On some pitches, he nearly fell over toward first, yet the next pitch, he barely leaned toward first while throwing the same exact pitch. He has a high leg kick follow through with his arm side leg, but in his motion at times, he seemingly stopped his arm side hip once the ball left his arm, which really makes for an odd contortion to his core and his plant leg. It just screams future injury to me, and that he finished the season injured didn’t surprise me much after seeing his motion. The other part is that you never really see the same combination of quirks two times in a row, which is a big reason you have the issues you do with Bird’s control.

Bird has a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and can touch 98. He gets good sink on the fastball, specifically arm-side sink. He compliments that well with a hard slider that tops out in the upper-80s and has just an absolutely wicked drop to it. The slider can hang when he tries to hit the absolute top of the velocity zone with the pitch, and it then becomes a meat ball that can be driven hard. His other two pitches are below-average right now. His change up could probably use a different grip, or he may want to go to a split-finger fastball instead. Right now, the pitch simply doesn’t move much, and it sits in the low- to mid-80s, so it simply looks like a slower fastball, and when batters are looking for a hanging slider in a similar velocity range, the change makes an easy target to hammer. His curve is incredibly inconsistent. When he was closer to straight vertical 12-6 curve, the pitch is incredibly difficult to hit as it sits low-70s with big looping motion and is a major offset to his high velocity fastball/slider combination. However, about half of the curve balls I saw were of a 1-7 break, and when he gets more toward that break, the ball slurves, doesn’t break near as deep, and sits at a higher velocity, running into the upper 70s, so essentially a slower version of his slider. If he could figure out how to gain that consistency to throw the 12-6 curve each time out, he’d have an incredible three pitch mix.

Next: 2016 outlook

One thing I loved about Bird in the Mississippi starts I saw of his was his ability to ride his emotions. When the situation ramped up, he focused himself, and he really got more focused and seemed to have more consistent motion and delivery, leading to better control. Now, if he could tap into that every time out.