Baseball Bulls in the pros update: Jimmy Herget

BrassBulls12 · January 26, 2019

Some talk about jimmy Herget making the big league club and starting the year in the reds bullpen

https://www.redreporter.com/2019/1/23/18193826/2019-red-reporter-community-prospect-rankings-mike-siani-is-12

Jimmy Herget, 25, RHP

Highest 2018 Level: AAA (Louisville)

Eye-Poppingest Fact: 9.8 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 3.10 K/BB ratio

Most Worrisome Fact: He’s not overpowering, and he’s not the flashiest of prospects.

Alias(es): Drink To Herget, Jimmy Eat World, Jimmy Hertron

BB-Ref Page

Usually, relievers don’t get hyped up that much and there’s pretty good reason for it. One, most relievers are failed starters that get their stuff to play up in the pen. So, there’s already a level of disappointment. Two, they usually only pitch an inning at a time and for a while were an afterthought in baseball. However, in today’s game relievers are as important as ever and are starting to make more and more noise in prospect settings. While many of the Reds reliever “prospects” haven’t really panned out, and we’ve watched them get slammed in major league games, Herget looks like he could be a guy that busts that trend.

Jimmy Herget was drafted in the 6th round of the 2015 draft, and since a brief stint in Billings his first year, he’s been meandering around the high minors. He hasn’t made his debut (most likely because of 40 man liabilities) but he’s done exceptionally well since being drafted. The difference between Herget and a lot of pitchers is that Herget was drafted as a reliever and the Reds actually didn’t tinker with him. It’s even more weird because before that he spent three years as a starter in South Florida. He’s reliably pitched sixty innings a year while putting up good peripherals and getting guys out.

Herget has a fastball that reaches 97 with good control and he can throw it from three different arm angles. This is deadly for a reliever because batters already have so many limited looks at you that it ups the deception factor dramatically. He couples that fastball with an above average slider that he uses as a put away pitch and a below average change up that he uses to keep hitters honest. To be frank, it’s probably his lack of a real third pitch that kept the Reds from trying him as a starter. With all of those different arm angles and a herky-jerky motion, Herget can cause some serious headaches with hitters. There’s a real good chance he starts the year out of the pen with the Reds.

He is also still listed on the 40-man roster as he heads towards spring training

http://m.reds.mlb.com/cin/roster/40-man/