DL Hall at his best is 'like playing video games.' Did the Orioles' prospect's 14-strikeout effort prove he's ready for The Show?
Orioles pitching prospect DL Hall had the minors' most dominant performance Wednesday, and crossed an important threshold of Triple-A starts in the process.
DL Hall’s peerless outing at Triple-A Norfolk Wednesday afternoon – 14 strikeouts in six innings – isn’t the type that happens out of nowhere.
Yes, his recent change after discovering he was tipping his pitches helped, and we’ll get to that in a bit. But to hear pitching coach Justin Ramsey talk about Hall’s outing and what he’s done so far with the Tides was to basically get a primer in the types of things that Hall will require to excel in his looming major league debut and beyond.
“As you go through a season, you’re going to make some mechanical adjustments and some of them are going to negate the ability to pick up on anything that might be coming, but it also gives a little more confidence to what you’re doing and knowing that you’re moving the right way to get your weapons through the plate,” Ramsey told me. “I think that’s kind of what we’re seeing.
“He’s been throwing more strikes this last month or so than maybe we’ve ever seen. I just feel that watching him go to work. So if you add a little more confidence to that with some delivery work that he’s become more comfortable with – and credit to him with what he’s done with his delivery to be through the zone and have more repeatability. You just kind of see the results unfold in front of us.”