Boston-Cleveland Guardians ranked 54th overall in 2022, and the decision to do so has become increasingly savvy. Since the MLB debut on August 20, the 24-year-old Southpaw has occupied the mounds five times and has shaped 1.84 ERA and 2.50 FIP for more than 29 1/3 innings. Although his professional 3-point shooting percentage of 18.3% wasn’t impressive, Messik sniffed 29.1% of the batsmen before calling, suggesting that strikeouts are still coming. Eric Longenhagen, writing about Messick in late May, noted that left-handed “has led minors to strike out since 2023.”
What makes Messick effective is a series of factors that are a combination of his pedestrian speed and lack of elite slams. As our leading prospect analyst explained on the fourth-place fourth in the Guardian system, “Messik’s 92mph fastball didn’t have a lot of carry, but it did go uphill and could get Whiffs through its angles.” Eric went on to write, his “at least a plus.”
Messick thinks his change is his best ball.
“I would say yes,” Messick told me as he played in Boston earlier this month. “As far as the swaying thing goes, yes. When it pairs with something else – when I dig it out of other courts – is the best. I think it does have some sharp moves at the end. I guess it also has enough speed differentials to sway at the bottom in front of it.”
When asked if he could elaborate on his favorite weapon, Messick said he had thrown the court in the same way since his first year high school. He described the grip as “like a funky circle – I’ve never seen anyone who grabs it in the exact same way – but if you break it down, it’s really just a change in a circle. Other than that, I really don’t know how to describe it.”
Carl Willis has a good idea of why Messick’s changes worked, although he lacks a concise description, too.
“I don’t know the adjectives used,” Cleveland’s pitching coach told me. “But obviously it has shaping. He executes it. He throws it super aggressively. It matches his delivery – it matches his fastball – so because of how aggressive he throws the ball. He charges in the batsman.
Each baseball racer has a 35.5-inch vertical drop and a 14.8-inch arm side horizontal break. At 84.5 mph, there was no extreme speed separation from his 92.7 mph fastball, but when he was well sequenced, that was enough to make the batsman bad. Similarly, his efforts between each other are an integral part of his success. So what is his second best product? Messick gave the answer to two in one.
“It could be my four-slit fastballs,” he said. “This combination is my best course when you play North and South with some Velo differentials. My fastball is about 93, and the league average is big, but it does have a good overview. There are a lot of factors that play in the heater, whether it’s sequencing, delivery, weapons, arm angles, if you hide the ball. It’s not just one thing.” It’s not just one thing. “The average four sales of the starter pitcher this season is 94.1 mph, which is harder than Messick’s 1.4 mph, but despite not having the overwhelming Velo standing, his point of view is how successful.
As for the rest of the tracks, Messick’s curve ball “always there” and the sinker he added this year, and a slider that went from “slower to wider balls, sharper, sharper sliders.”
This led us to decide on the name of Florida Botanical City in the second round of the 2022 draft. Eric Binder played an integral role in Cleveland’s pitching development program, and he commented on the organization’s draft decisions, so I asked Assistant GM what made Messick the ideal choice.
“He always catches the ball, and you always see Parker’s best every day,” Binder said. “That’s one of the strengths of his profile. You see that in terms of consistency in his performance. Second, he has some unique delivery quality and pitch shapes in the organization. We feel that the way he moves will complement the way we succeed in player development.”
Binder chose not to detail the unique delivery quality and pitch shapes, but he could handle the importance of change.
“It’s always been his highest secondary ball,” the executive told me. “It’s important to have an additional secondary weapon that you can rely on, so the challenge he got into the system was, ‘How do you maintain the best fastball and change quality, but then build the rest of the Arsenal to succeed at the major league level?” He did a great job in that. ”
Early returns are sufficient evidence. There are only five starts, but Messik looks like a midstream station in The Guardian that starts spinning in the coming years. Change is the reason.
