The Bleich Debut: My Take

The Yankees highest signed draft pick, LHP Jeremy Bleich, has made his much awaited debut.

In General
3 Innings Pitched
4 Strikeouts
0 Walks
2 Hits
2 Runs
1 HR
6.00 ERA
1 Hit Batter

What's Not To Like
Obviously, the ERA. But keep in mind, Bleich has not seen game action since the College World Series, so he was limited in innings.
The homerun, obviously never good to give up a homerun.
The Groudout-flyout ratio. He had 1 groundout compared to 4 flyouts. The biggest knock on Bleich is he puts up too many balls in the air, be it flyouts, extra base hits or the HR. Pitchers want to give more grounders up than flyouts, obviously because they are easier to make a play on, do less damage and stay in the park. Most would like to see Bleich close this gap as quickly as possible and make that a better ratio.
The hit batter, noone likes to see control issues, but it's not a tendency of Bleich, esp with it being in the 1st inning, I say it was more nerves than anything.

What's to Like
The performance. Like I said, it's been awhile since Bleich has seen gameplay, even though he has been throwing and pitching and conditioning...etc...game time is different. Plus, I was a little concerned with the injury, the Yankees not announcing his debut made me feel that were going to push it to winter ball to give him healing time, plus look at Andrew Brackman...
The Strikeouts, the other knock on Bleich was he wasn't a strikeout pitcher, not sure where that knock came from, I wouldn't say it's a huge part of his game, but he'll get his share of K's. Anyway, 4 strikeouts in 3 innnings is pretty good work.
The pitchcount. Bleich suffered an elbow injury earlier and as I have said, hasn't seen game action, so his performance is encouraging. Staten Island has not yet released his pitch count, as the game is not over yet, but he faced 12 batters, so I would guess it would be in the range of 40-50 pitches, possibly as low as 30 considering there were no walks.

Overall Grade: I give Bleich an B+ around a grade of 87 out of 100
Keep in mind this is my own grading style that I will have to explain next blog
Innings Pitched/Pitch Count: 9/10
Strikeouts: 8/10
Walks/Hit Batters: 9/10
Base Hits: 9/10
Extra Base Hits:7/10
Extra Variable (experience, age, injuries, etc): 10/10
Composure/Poise: 10/10
Groundout/Flyout Ratio: 5/10
Command: 10/10
Improvement from last performance: 10/10 (His last performance was against much less competition, so that along with this being his MiLB debut, I will give him the full 10 points.)