The Arrival of "Terrible"
Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 9:58 pm
By JT Buford
JACKSONVILLE -- Luppe “Terrible” van Dam posted to his Instagram minutes ago which set off a chain reaction across social media. It was a simple picture, but the connotations are clear. It was a selfie of the #1 pitching prospect in PEBA not wearing the customary light blue of the Chesapeake Bay squad, but instead the lush burgundy Featherheads cap. He was also on an airplane. While we haven’t gotten official word yet from the Featherheads front office, all signs point to Luppe heading to San Antonio to meet up with the club.
To those of you who have somehow been able to avoid hearing much about Luppe, we wanted to give you a quick primer on the Featherheads star prospect. Luppe van Dam has been the Featherheads number one prospect since he signed with the team out of Brielle, Holland as a 16-year-old. The phenom showed such promise at the time that Ken Hannahs signed the youngster to an outrageous 7 million dollar signing bonus which, after luxury tax hits, cost the organization 12 million dollars. Since then, van Dam has made quick work of the minor leagues, capping the journey off with winning the Pitcher of the Year award in the Global Baseball Brotherhood in 2028 and getting his first piece of hardware: the GBB championship ring.
What pitches does he throw you ask? Well, some starters feature 3 above average pitches, others prefer five or six mediocre pitches. Both strategies are successful to an extent. Three good pitches will keep hitters off-balance enough – with five or six, you can simply throw the whole kitchen sink at them. Luppe has opted for something a little more novel: he throws six (yes, not a typo) plus to plus-plus pitches.
Luppe can bring the heat and will usually sit comfortably around 97 mph throughout his starts. Again, for many pitchers, throwing 97 may be an adequate skill to make yourself useful as a starter, but Luppe doesn’t stop there. His best pitch is not his fastball. His best pitch is his change-up which he uses to confound the opposing offense and produce strikeouts. His other four pitches are no slouches, either. His curveball and splitter offerings still show potential growth and are already great pitches to induce ground balls. His two weakest offerings are his arm side offerings: the screwball and the circle change. While these pitches are the weakest in his repertoire, the potential on these does portend growth. Basically, the spin rate is there – it’s just not leaving it up in the zone.
Through these six pitches and his high game IQ, van Dam was lights out last year for Chesapeake, pitching 181.1 innings in which he wracked up 184 Ks and had a WHIP below 1.
When reached for comment, many of the Featherheads players seemed just as surprised as the fans and journalists. “They finally did it, huh?” Commented Featherhead star Danny Burton. “Well, it’s about time. He could only learn so much down on the farm. Now he has to figure it out up here.”
The normally straight-laced manager of the Featherheads, Hector Santana was reported to have even cracked a smile when asked a question about the fire-balling phenom. “He’s a special kid. We’ve already had a fair amount of time to get to know one another and I am looking forward to working with him to hone his craft and get him to where he needs to be to be an effective major leaguer… supposing of course that he is in fact on his way to the club, of course.”
While Luppe’s ascent is, of course, first and foremost about the young kid getting his shot, there is another story at play here as well. As a first-time GM, this was Ken Hannahs’ coming out party, and showed that he wasn’t going to simply let Streets’ money molder in its coffers. Many believed the 12 million dollar gross purchase to be a significant error.
This is also the story of the Featherheads farm system that has groomed this young man incredibly well and put him in a position to be an effective PEBA starter the very first time he climbs the mound in a major league game.
This is also the culmination of a promise to the fans. Most of the Featherheads stars were not originally drafted by the team. You, of course, have Danny Burton and Forrest Major, but beyond that, none of the impact players are homegrown talent. To have someone like Luppe make his way up with the pressure that he’s been under at such an early age to be successful, we now get to watch someone, for the first time in 8 years, take the field for the first time in Featherheads maroon, and cheer for him for his entire career.
To make room on the roster, the Featherheads are expecting to option Ty Evans who has not had the success the Featherheads had hoped to find in the young pitcher, pitching to a 7.71 ERA over five outings. In Chesapeake, he is expected to move to his more natural starting role which may be important for the rest of the season and going into next. Bill Gallagher is the natural choice to free up a rotation spot. Gallagher was one of, if not the most, consistent starter last year, but has started off slowly this year, pitching to a 5.51 ERA over three starts and striking out a meager 6.6 every nine innings. His last start was pretty good as he went 7 strong and only giving up two runs, but there is no doubt that Bill’s skills may fit better in a bullpen that is currently reeling from a particularly slow start.
JACKSONVILLE -- Luppe “Terrible” van Dam posted to his Instagram minutes ago which set off a chain reaction across social media. It was a simple picture, but the connotations are clear. It was a selfie of the #1 pitching prospect in PEBA not wearing the customary light blue of the Chesapeake Bay squad, but instead the lush burgundy Featherheads cap. He was also on an airplane. While we haven’t gotten official word yet from the Featherheads front office, all signs point to Luppe heading to San Antonio to meet up with the club.
To those of you who have somehow been able to avoid hearing much about Luppe, we wanted to give you a quick primer on the Featherheads star prospect. Luppe van Dam has been the Featherheads number one prospect since he signed with the team out of Brielle, Holland as a 16-year-old. The phenom showed such promise at the time that Ken Hannahs signed the youngster to an outrageous 7 million dollar signing bonus which, after luxury tax hits, cost the organization 12 million dollars. Since then, van Dam has made quick work of the minor leagues, capping the journey off with winning the Pitcher of the Year award in the Global Baseball Brotherhood in 2028 and getting his first piece of hardware: the GBB championship ring.
What pitches does he throw you ask? Well, some starters feature 3 above average pitches, others prefer five or six mediocre pitches. Both strategies are successful to an extent. Three good pitches will keep hitters off-balance enough – with five or six, you can simply throw the whole kitchen sink at them. Luppe has opted for something a little more novel: he throws six (yes, not a typo) plus to plus-plus pitches.
Luppe can bring the heat and will usually sit comfortably around 97 mph throughout his starts. Again, for many pitchers, throwing 97 may be an adequate skill to make yourself useful as a starter, but Luppe doesn’t stop there. His best pitch is not his fastball. His best pitch is his change-up which he uses to confound the opposing offense and produce strikeouts. His other four pitches are no slouches, either. His curveball and splitter offerings still show potential growth and are already great pitches to induce ground balls. His two weakest offerings are his arm side offerings: the screwball and the circle change. While these pitches are the weakest in his repertoire, the potential on these does portend growth. Basically, the spin rate is there – it’s just not leaving it up in the zone.
Through these six pitches and his high game IQ, van Dam was lights out last year for Chesapeake, pitching 181.1 innings in which he wracked up 184 Ks and had a WHIP below 1.
When reached for comment, many of the Featherheads players seemed just as surprised as the fans and journalists. “They finally did it, huh?” Commented Featherhead star Danny Burton. “Well, it’s about time. He could only learn so much down on the farm. Now he has to figure it out up here.”
The normally straight-laced manager of the Featherheads, Hector Santana was reported to have even cracked a smile when asked a question about the fire-balling phenom. “He’s a special kid. We’ve already had a fair amount of time to get to know one another and I am looking forward to working with him to hone his craft and get him to where he needs to be to be an effective major leaguer… supposing of course that he is in fact on his way to the club, of course.”
While Luppe’s ascent is, of course, first and foremost about the young kid getting his shot, there is another story at play here as well. As a first-time GM, this was Ken Hannahs’ coming out party, and showed that he wasn’t going to simply let Streets’ money molder in its coffers. Many believed the 12 million dollar gross purchase to be a significant error.
This is also the story of the Featherheads farm system that has groomed this young man incredibly well and put him in a position to be an effective PEBA starter the very first time he climbs the mound in a major league game.
This is also the culmination of a promise to the fans. Most of the Featherheads stars were not originally drafted by the team. You, of course, have Danny Burton and Forrest Major, but beyond that, none of the impact players are homegrown talent. To have someone like Luppe make his way up with the pressure that he’s been under at such an early age to be successful, we now get to watch someone, for the first time in 8 years, take the field for the first time in Featherheads maroon, and cheer for him for his entire career.
To make room on the roster, the Featherheads are expecting to option Ty Evans who has not had the success the Featherheads had hoped to find in the young pitcher, pitching to a 7.71 ERA over five outings. In Chesapeake, he is expected to move to his more natural starting role which may be important for the rest of the season and going into next. Bill Gallagher is the natural choice to free up a rotation spot. Gallagher was one of, if not the most, consistent starter last year, but has started off slowly this year, pitching to a 5.51 ERA over three starts and striking out a meager 6.6 every nine innings. His last start was pretty good as he went 7 strong and only giving up two runs, but there is no doubt that Bill’s skills may fit better in a bullpen that is currently reeling from a particularly slow start.
