(Bumped from FanPosts. --Eric)

---

I spent most of Friday battling a stomach bug, pretty unsure whether I'd make it out to the ballpark in time to catch the Savannah Sand Gnats battle the Rome Braves. Luckily, the game was delayed slightly due to some passing showers in the Rome area so I made it before the Sand Gnats pitcher, Erik Goeddel, started warming up in the bullpen. I always enjoy watching guys work in the pen before the game. As you can see in the video that I posted below, he takes his time to gather a feel for his pitches.

Fast Forward to Game action. Erik didn't disappoint. He was seemingly in control the entire game, reaching his first 3 ball count in the 7th inning. In fact, from information I obtained from an anonymous source, this was the first game that Erik reached the 7th inning as a starter since Erik was in high school. If you don't know the story, he battled elbow injuries in high school and college, having a torn elbow ligament repaired while at UCLA. He is a tall, lanky kid who has room to grow and pack on some muscle.

Fastball: Erik features both a 4 seam and 2 seem sinking fastball. His sinker is a plus pitch, sitting in the low 90s with good downward movement in on right handed hitters. This pitches effectiveness is best measured by an 11:4 Groundball:Flyball ratio. His 4 seem fastball had some extra giddy up to it and was able to dial back for something extra when he needed it. This pitch sat in the mid 90s, touching 96, with some riding action. With the extra giddy up, he lost some, if not all, of his movement on the 4 seamer. I wasn't as impressed with this offering as I was with the sinker; however, it's effectiveness is tied to his ability to throw his sinker and his breaking pitches. There was a real effort made to establish both fastballs during the game. In fact, 70% of the pitches thrown were fastballs.

Change Up: The least of his offerings, it isn't a terrible pitch. If anything, it provided Erik with a change of pace, to keep hitters off of his fastball. The arm action was okay but the difference in velocity was good.

Slider: His best offering. The movement on this pitch is unfair for the opposition. The pitch started in the zone but ending up sweeping abusively low and out of the zone. This pitch, followed by the sinker, was simply unfair to the opposition. I don't have a velocity reading for the slider but I would guess it sits in the mid 80s.

Curveball: The best single pitch thrown all evening was a Curveball to Braves prospect Edward Salcedo. The curveball to Salcedo was perfectly set up after a steady diet of fastballs. A classic 12-6 offering, Erik did not have a good feel and avoided this pitch after the second inning other than the one he spun to Salcedo. Once again, I don't have a velocity reading on this pitch. It was his slowest offering, probably registering in the high 70s.

Erik's final line was 7 innings pitched, 6 hits, 5 strikeouts, 1 HR, 1 run and no walks.

In the video posted below, you will see Erik warm up in the pen prior to the game, some warm ups before the first few innings of the game and some pitches during game action.

Mets Prospect Erik Goeddel (via MetsgeekTV)