LHP Donald Veal - Cubs: Tenn (AA)

LHSP - Donald Veal - Tennessee Smokies AA

Position: P Full Name: Donald T. Veal
Born: September 18, 1984 Jackson,Mississippi
Height: 6-4 Weight: 215 Bats: L Throws: L
High School: Buena (Sierra Vista,AZ)
College: Pima Community College

Drafted - Selected by Chicago White Sox in 12th Round (352nd overall) of 2003 amateur entry draft (June-Reg) ... Selected by Chicago Cubs in 2nd Round (68th overall) of 2005 amateur entry draft (June-Reg)

Veal is considered by many to be the Cubs top pitching prospect, vying for that honor with the likes of Sean Gallagher and Jeff Samardzija. A big bodied pitcher, reminiscent of a Dontrelle Willis.

Pitching repertoire / Stuff

Veal throws a fastball, changeup and curveball.

From insidetheivy.com (May 2007): After allowing three singles in the third inning, Veal left the game following a walk to load the bases. His fastball was consistently 88-91 mph through his two-plus innings. He topped out at 94 mph in the first inning.

From mlb.com (at time of draft):
COMMENT: Long arms and legs. Similar to Dontrelle Willis. Pitches come on a downward plane. Stays behind a FB that is usually 89-90 w/ natural riding life. Good spin and drop on his CB, especially when he stays on top. Has a live arm.

From a Baseball America interview:

BA: What part of your game do you feel the most confident in?

DV: Right now, location of my fastball . . . that and my changeup. My curveball is probably the thing that I'm least confident in. I'm working on getting more consistent with it. When I was hurt, I didn't really throw it . . . didn't want to do too much and hurt my elbow or back. So, it just got rusty and I just have to get the feel of it back again.

That's what I worked on most of the year. It started to come around toward the end of the year, but I still got a lot of work to do on it.

BA: Word on the street is that you throw two different kinds curveballs, a slow one that you have good control of and a hard one that you've struggled with a little bit before.

DV: People have said that. At the beginning of the year we decided to just throw it for a strike and it was working as a slow curveball. Then, the coaches wanted me to speed it up a little bit, so that's where the whole slow/fast came from. I was adjusting . . . trying to figure out how to speed it up/slow it down.

Sometimes I'd throw it slower--not on purpose--when I was trying to throw it for a strike, it would be slower. And then other times it would come out fast. But right now, it's more of just trying to get the feel of one down.

Pitching mechanics

From the windup, comes set with glove in front:

















From the stretch:


















Video of Veal throwing in the pen:


Pitching perfomance

Career: 324.1 IP / 3.44 ERA / 353 K / 175 BB / 1.29 WHIP / 242 H

Does not get hit much, evidenced by the meager 242 hits given up. He strikes out more than a batter per inning (9.80 K/9), which shows the projectables are there. Given his body type, and stuff, you have to grade him highly as a prospect. He needs to master his control, as he's a bit wild right now (4.86 BB/9).


Roughly gets about 40% grounders on batted balls, judging on last year's performance at AA Tennessee.

Scouting

Stuff: 65
Movement: 75
Location: 45
Control: 40
Mound Presence: 70

Rated by John Sickels as a B+ prospect, and the top pitching prospect in the Cubs organization.

Hitting abilities are common for a pitcher - career .160 hitter with no extra base hits.

Appearance

Wears #27 on the Tennessee Smokies (AA).

Sometimes wears high socks (ala D-Train), but has recently gone with the baggy Sabathia look.

Wore all black fielding glove on the mound last season, but was seen in road games wearing a red glove to match Smokies red road cap.

Wears colored necklace.

Has small mustache, hair closely cropped.

Lanky body, very much in the Dontrelle mold, and should fill out.