Scouting Report Jason Hammel

Jason Hammel
6th Major League Season
28 years old
6'6" 200 pounds
Bats R/Throws R

Hammel was drafted by the Rays in 2002, and made his debut in 2006. He was considered a super-two and lost out on the 5th starter job to Jeff Niemann in 2009, hence the reason he was traded to the Rockies. He's 28-32 in his career, with a 5.08 ERA and 1.49 WHIP, but for the Rockies he's 20-17.

Hammel is a four-pitch pitcher, and he throws from a 3/4 arm slot. His location of his fastball has greatly improved, and he throws it between 90-94 (average 93). It does not have a lot of movement. His curveball is a plus pitch (77 mph) and he also throws a sweeping slider (84 mph). He sparingly uses his change-up (85 mph, 6% of his pitches). His two best pitches this year are his slider and curve. His curveball use increases with 2 strikes, but he's not afraid to throw his slider either in that situation. Hammel has average K/9 rates (7.1 last year), but he doesn't get a lot of swing and misses (7.2% when league average is 8.5%). This is a rare case when those don't match up, and isn't a good sign for him to continue to get a bunch of strike outs. He has cut his walk rates significantly since joining the Rockies (2.14 and 2.32 versus 4+ with the Rays).

He's only faced the Mets once in his career, last August, and he threw 7 innings, but let up 8 hits and 4 runs to take the loss.

In his lone start this year, he threw 5 innings versus the Dodgers and got the win, but it wasn't pretty. 4 runs (2 HR), 6 hits, 3 walks and only 2 strikeouts.

A lot of people are still expecting big things out of Hammel (his FIP the past two years have been a solid 3.7 versus he ERAs of 4.33 and 4.81), as he has had very high BAPIP (.326 and .328). He's a solid #4/5 starter that is still learning how to pitch and gain confidence.