Angry Mike - Mound Assassins - Zach Thornton

                                         ANGRY MIKE

"MOUND ASSASSINS"

A common methodology for scouting and identifying high upside pitching prospects focuses on targeting kids from what I like to call, “Main Street”. “Staying on Main Street”, enables teams to feel more confident in their ability to circumvent the risk factor from the “risk versus reward” dynamic and the innate volatility associated with drafting and developing pitchers. Drafting pitchers exhibits the highest degree of volatility when it comes to “risk versus reward”.

 

Ironically, for every “prep” pitching prospect drafted from the “Big Four Quadrant” (Texas, Florida, Georgia, & California) that lives up to the hype there are countless ones who don’t even come close. Same can be said about drafting pitchers from “Power-5” programs like Vanderbilt, Florida, Texas, and other reputable NCAA programs. This will forever remain an indisputable fact, which makes any logical person ask:

 

How reliable is “Main Street”? It depends on who you ask.

 

Many MLB franchises rarely deviate from “Main Street”, while others, such as the Mets have become increasingly more adept identifying potential high-ceiling pitching talent regardless of where they are from or what college they’ve been playing for.

 

Just because you didn’t buy a diamond engagement ring from “Zales”, doesn’t make it any less valuable. Just BLOODY make sure you know what you’re buying and what to looking for, because “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

 

(If you take nothing from this article, remember this, it could save your life one day…)

 

The same can be said of drafting pitchers. Certain franchises, including the Mets, have a proven formula for identifying potential high-ceiling talent, and the necessary development infrastructure for converting “potential into production”.

 

Enter Zach Thornton & the Mets “Pitching Lab”.

 

Thornton is by no means a product of “Main Street”, which is probably why his overall potential continues to be marginalized by “prospect experts”, despite his elite production at the upper levels for 2 straight seasons. Thornton went undrafted out of high school before heading to Barton Community College. During his time at Barton, he posted a 2.63 ERA in his sophomore year, and summer stints with the Elizabethton River Riders and Mahoning Valley Scrappers, boosting his profile enough to earn him a transfer to Grand Canyon University. During his lone season, he became a key starter, showed he was a strikeout artist, posted a 3.87 ERA, and convinced the Mets to draft him in the 5th round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

 

Unfortunately for Thornton, his most challenging battles were still ahead of him, despite all the adversity he just overcame just to earn him the right of being drafted.

 

It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional baseball player, an analyst trying to climb the corporate ladder, or a soldier entering their first deployment, as different as each battlefield presented before them might be, each conflict shares one common trait.

 

Those who have shown the ability to overcome adversity at a young age, are immediately tasked with the challenge of handling more adversity than they ever imagined was possible. All at once too. It’s an old-school method used by the higher ups to not only see how good you are, but more importantly, to see if you have the moxie to learn while you are getting your ass kicked.

 

“Is he a fighter? Or does he fold?”

 

When the Mets sent Thornton to Brooklyn during his first season, they fully expected him to struggle. What they didn’t expect, was to only see him struggle twice, and then dominate more advanced professional hitters in his 5 other starts. What’s more impressive than the numbers Thornton produced during his first professional season, was the work he put in during the off-season with the Mets “Pitching Lab”. Thornton successfully improved all his pitches and increased his average fastball velocity significantly. Thornton’s improved arsenal prompted the Mets’ development brass to challenge him again during his sophomore campaign, earning a quick promotion to AA-Eastern League. Jonah Tong might be getting all the national recognition, but prior to his injury, Thornton was seemingly matching Tong’s production start for start. Like Tong, Thornton exhibited the rare ability to dominate right-handed and left-handed batters equally.

 

We’ve already covered in detail how Thornton’s statistics matchup with any other pitching prospect currently in the minor leagues. What makes Thornton a special talent, is the fact he was subjected to an old-school methodology for developing pitching prospects, rarely utilized today. Rather than coddling him through the minors, the Mets subjected him to rapid level-advancement to see if it would break him, and to the surprise of everyone but himself, he performed better than anyone expected. That’s why mock trades involving Thornton were a total joke because you simply don’t trade pitching prospects, if you can’t accurately forecast how high their future ceiling is. 

 

Plus, you don’t trade kids who have handled the type of adversity Thornton has. Thornton’s ceiling, like Tong’s, will continue to rise, which is why I fully expect him to have an integral role with the Mets for a very long time. 

 

Zach Thornton

Mound Assassin

Angry Mike Syndicate