The J-Train - Jurrjens’ Chances

Written by Colin on March 8, 2008 – 11:53 am

Jair Jurrjens - J-Train, we’ll call him - continues to impress during spring training.  Whether or not Mike Hampton makes the rotation out of spring training, I think it’s a good bet we see this young man in a Braves uniform from the get-go.  We’ve been very impressed with his stuff so far.

He’s earning the fifth rotation spot.  His last outing featured three scoreless innings.  He’s given up two hits and one run in five innings of work, and he struck out three.  He’s got one win.  But more important than the stats, he’s got good movement on his pitches, keeps the ball down, and has had great composure.

What makes Jurrjens’ stuff special?  He has four pitches - a four-seamer, a two-seamer, a slurve, and a change-up.  He says his slurve is still developing, but his fastball tops out at 97 mph.  And he doesn’t just have great variety - he has control.  One of his criticisms is that he throws too many strikes.  What we’ve seen of him so far, he’s keeping his pitches low and hitting the corners.  He has let a few drift up - but with a 97 mph heater, who can blame him?

Jurrjens is a special player who will do well in the big leagues in the years to come - I’m excited that we get to see him develop in Atlanta.  If he keeps performing like he has so far, the fifth rotation spot will be his to lose.

Tags: Atlanta Braves, Jair Jurrjens
Posted in General, Speculation |