Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on RHP Akeel Morris

Scouting Report

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Size/Delivery/Control

Size – Morris is listed at 6’1″ and 195 pounds, and those numbers seem about right in both regards.

Delivery – Morris works from the stretch and finishes with a high 3/4 to near-overhand delivery.

Morris begins by bringing his hands from in front of his face down to his belt, and when his hands hit his belt, it kicks in the rest of his delivery as a sort of timing mechanism for him.

He has a low leg lift to just under belt high and then lunge forward with tremendous force with a huge leg kick in follow.

That big follow through is primarily due to his tremendous force generated from the peak of his delivery, and it causes a majority of his command/control issues.

Control (40) – Morris struggles with landing consistently in his delivery, and when his landing leg is off, he’ll his arm gets behind him in his delivery, and he attempts to use his arm to generate all his velocity and movement.

This has led to incredibly unpredictable and biting movement on his pitches over his career, but it also has meant that he currently sits with a 13.53% walk rate over his career.

While his hit rate has remained low thus far in the minor leagues, this is an incredible red flag over his future success.

Pitches

Fastball (60) – Morris runs his fastball in the 93-94 area, and he can touch 97 at top end when he reaches back. His high arm slot adds extra play to the ball in deception and movement.

With his rough landing, he can present both arm side and glove side movement on his pitch low in the zone. He can present “rise” on his pitch at top end velocity, all from a traditional four-seam fastball.

Change Up (60) – Morris’ fastball is tremendous in its own right, but his change is the pitch that will give him a major league career.

He gets similar unpredictable movement on the pitch due to his arm drag with his mechanics, but what makes the pitch so effective is that he truly gets more movement than his fastball with a similar arm movement on the pitch.

Slider (40) – Morris’ slider is strictly a “show me” pitch. He probably throws 2-3 per game, and they’re really best used as a “bury” pitch low in the zone, but he really has minimal control of the pitch.

His slider is nearly exclusively used against right-handed hitters, and his best location for effectiveness of the pitch is down and in on the RH batter, as the pitch does have some surprising cut action to its movement, giving it arm side run.

However, he rarely threw the ball for a strike, so if hitters simply sat on the pitch when recognized it, they’d be fine in most cases.

MLB Player Comp

While a significantly different build, Fernando Rodney is a very good comp in pitch type and control and what that can be.

Rodney is primarily a fastball/change guy, toughing upper 90s with his fastball and using his change as a very effective strikeout pitch.

Of course, that comparison could heavily frighten Braves fans as this is a guy who has combined the last two seasons for a -0.3 fWAR in spite of saving 41 games in 2015-2016 and throwing 128 innings of relief.

In his career, Rodney’s best run came from 2012-2014, which was when he was 35 and long gone from his original club, and that could very well be the case with Morris.

His control could be something that limits him to having a short streak where he is able to suppress hard contact and keep numbers low, but primarily, the walk rate will make him an extremely volatile reliever.

Next: Braves Minor League Database

Morris will likely open 2017 with AAA, but he’s already on the 40-man, and it’s quite likely he’ll get a shot in Atlanta before the year is up.