Diamondbacks' young arms thriving outside hostile minor league venues

Diamondbacks right-hander Drey Jameson saw the ball leave Manny Machado’s bat on Thursday night and assumed the worst. After playing nearly a full season in Triple-A Reno, Jameson had become conditioned to seeing well hit fly balls like Machado’s — not to mention poorly hit balls, as well — sail out of ballparks throughout the Pacific Coast League.

“I turned around and was like, ‘Dang, that’s going out,’” Jameson recalled. “But then it stayed in the yard and I was like, ‘Yes!’ It’s a lot of relief.”

In firing seven scoreless innings on Thursday, Jameson managed to do what teammate Ryne Nelson had done in the preceding weeks. Both pitchers came from Triple-A, where they had posted unimpressive — if not downright poor — statistics as members of the Reno starting rotation. And both managed to start off their big league careers with dominant performances.

Nelson has made two starts in the majors and has yet to give up a run in 13 innings, allowing just six hits, walking two — one intentionally — and striking out 13. Jameson gave up just two hits with one walk and five strikeouts. Nelson will make his third start on Sunday afternoon against the San Diego Padres.

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The Pacific Coast League has long been known as a miserable place for pitchers, and Reno’s Greater Nevada Field might be the most hitter-friendly of all the parks in the PCL.

Reno is situated at a high altitude of roughly 4,400 feet. The conditions tend to be dry and windy. And pitchers not only have trouble gripping the ball and making their pitches do what they want them to do. They often are left feeling powerless as miss-hit fly balls carry for what they consider “cheap” home runs.

So it is no surprise that pitchers almost always struggle there. Over 136 innings, Nelson posted a 5.43 ERA, a mark that comes in higher than Reno’s 5.12 ERA as a team. Jameson struggled even more, posting a a 6.95 ERA in 114 innings.

Diamondbacks pitchers have it just as bad in Double-A, where their affiliate in Amarillo, Texas, annually ranks among the most hitter-friendly ballparks in all of minor league baseball.

Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom called those levels good “testing grounds” for the organization’s prospects, believing that if they can survive the mental rigors of pitching there — that is, if they can give up a home run on a quality pitch and not let it deter them from continuing to throw strikes — then they might have a chance to succeed in the majors.

“If you can pitch there,” Strom said, “you can pitch here.”

Jameson said the ball Machado hit in the sixth inning would have been an “easy” homer in Reno. He said there were others that might have left the yard as well. He felt the environment at Chase Field was more fair than what he experienced in Triple-A.

“You’re not hitting a 91 mile-per-hour exit velo homer here, which is nice,” Jameson said. “It’s all luck at that point. If you hit a homer, it should be earned.”

Scouts say the quality of pitchers’ stuff can vary widely between levels; one evaluator opined that pitches can sometimes jump a full grade on the 20-to-80 scouting scale when going from Reno to Arizona. Not only did both Jameson and Nelson both agree with this take, there is pitch data to support it.

Jameson said sinker had more sink, his change-up more depth, and he said he had to change his sightlines on his slider because of how much more movement he was getting with the pitch.

“How I was throwing it in Reno,” he said, “if I wanted it back-foot or if I wanted it right on the edge for a strike, I would have to start it on the right side of the plate, arm-side. And in my start here, my visual was to throw it in the other (batter’s) box because it was getting a lot more sweep on it than usual.”

The differences are not limited just to pitches with side-to-side movement; minor league pitching coordinator Dan Carlson said Nelson was getting especially good “carry” on his fastball in his start last week against the Dodgers, an attribute that gives the pitch the illusion of rising as it approaches home plate.

Carlson said that good carry is measured at around 18 inches. Anything above 20 inches qualifies as “elite.” He said Nelson went from getting about 16-17 inches in Reno to registering at 20 1/2 inches when he faced the Dodgers on Monday night.

“You can have good carry at 18, but when you average two inches higher than that, that’s extra special,” Carlson said. “That’s like having extra miles an hour on your fastball. It’s always been there, but in different air or a different environment, it creates a difference.”

Said Nelson: “It helps with the confidence in it and being able to throw it and trust that it’s going to do what you want it to do. The balls just feel easier to hold onto here. I’m sure that has something to do with it.”

Both Nelson and Jameson were high picks from the Diamondbacks’ 2019 draft class. Both possess electric stuff. Their performances in recent weeks, on the heels of their results in Reno, have helped dramatically shift the vibe around organization’s future, particularly since more potentially high upside arms remain down below, namely Triple-A right-hander Brandon Pfaadt and Double-A left-hander Blake Walston.

“We have young players that are pushing, young players that are grabbing the attention of this organization,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “I love that. That’s what needs to happen. They’re doing a great job of it.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks' young arms thriving outside hostile minor league venues