Seth
was Joey Creighton's first pick in the 2001 draft. As a rookie in
2000, he made the playoffs, but with Nate Stuempfig, lost in the
first round to Joey and Mike Walsh. He went on to hit 23 homeruns
in 2001 and put up a solid 2.83 ERA. However, he played in only
10 regular season games in 2002, garnering only 57 ABs, hitting
only 3 homeruns, and finishing with a less than stellar .211 batting
average. His pitching was phenominal though, as he posted a 0.50
ERA in 16 IP. He should be at most Horsemen games in 2003.
Fundamentally,
there is nothing wrong with Yoder's hitting. He is just way too
selective and watches many balls go by. While many rookies are guilty
of this due to being unfamiliar with such a large strike zone, Seth
will be playing in his fourth season, and should be picking up on
things by now. He rarely swings at anything below his shins, even
with two strikes, and a pitcher is in good shape if he can keep
the ball down there. He's a tad slow when it comes to turning on
inside pitches, but if you leave it up and out, his sound swing
will make you pay.
The only thing
you can fault on Seth's pitching is the fact that at times, he can
get a little lazy. Once in awhile, he'll leave a hitter something
to hit and often-times hitters will jump on it. However, over the
past few seasons these lapses have come less and less often. Simply
put, when Seth is focused, he's nearly unhittable. He has a slow
windup and deadly heat on his fastball, and both complement each
other well. He rarely walks batters, and has a vicious split-fingered
fastball that keeps nearly every batted ball in the ballpark. He's
also very intelligent while on the mound, and is becoming a master
at setting hitters up. Basically, he's John Deatrick with knowledge
and a nasty "splitty." He can overpower you or out-think
you, or both.
Nothing special
about Seth's fielding. He can cover only an average amount of ground,
but his ability to position himself keeps him in the good graces
of the pitcher. He won't make the highlight reel very often, but
doesn't really need to. |
