Let’s start with the drool. Here’s Nate Pearson:
Nate Pearson bending the baseball ? pic.twitter.com/wxF4RKXftk
— Ryan Di Francesco (@RyanDifrancesco) March 1, 2020
Wipes sweat bead from forehead, takes a long drawn-out beat, then, “Damn.” Here’s what else he does to hitters:
This is our last baseball for a while, so enjoy this video of Nate Pearson owning a guy so hard he just chucked his bat at the ball pic.twitter.com/Bjt13NZ0to
— Blue Jays Nation (@thejaysnation) March 12, 2020
Wanna know how good a guy is? Watch how hitters attack, or in this case, try to attack him. These two examples of Nate Pearson’s butter don’t even show his 99 MPH cheddar. That cheese, if you will, is the reason why these hitters are looking so bad. Imagine sitting on a 99 MPH fastball, then this filth is dropped into the zone. You can’t hit anything there without guessing. You sit dead-red heat on his fastball, one of the best in the minors, and he drops in an 86 MPH change or a slider or a curve. Batter, batter, can’t touch butter! You can hope he doesn’t locate on one of the pitches, but last year, across three levels of the minors ending in Triple-A, he had a 119/27 K/BB. Yes, that’s beautiful. I guess you can argue that minor leaguers aren’t waiting on a pitch like major leaguers, but have you seen strikeout rates recently in the majors? Pearson’s going to chew up hitters and spit them into a barrel and send that barrel over Niagara, saying, “Get the f*** out of Canada!” So, what can we expect from Nate Pearson for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?
He’s ranked 34th by Prospect Itch in his top 50 prospects for 2020 fantasy baseball and is 7th on Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list. Prospect Itch says of Pearson, “There’s probably somebody somewhere who thinks Nate Pearson is the best pitching prospect in baseball. If so, I doubt we’d find a long line of people willing to call it ridiculous. I used the phrase “bully on the mound” when discussing Luis Frias, and Pearson is a bully to the bullies. I don’t mean to glorify a base evil of humanity but to describe how the combination of a power pitcher’s stuff, pace, pitch mix and demeanor can make him the big kid on the playground. Think Max Scherzer. There’s a momentum to it. At some point you’re fighting gravity in the dugout. Nate Pearson is gravity. Speaking of gravity, when will something big fall on Grey?” Hey, cmon! I haven’t pinged Prospect Itch, and I’m sure he has a reason, but I’m surprised Pearson isn’t higher in his top 50. If I had to guess, I’d say because all pitching prospects are a mess for fantasy, i.e., TINSTAPP. Or maybe it’s because he’s in a tough division. Or maybe a combo of that. Or maybe I should’ve just asked him. Steamer rookie projections aren’t that favorable to Pearson either, but, again, my eyes are saying he’s Chris Paddack last year just in need of a starting job. Either way, I didn’t rank Nate Pearson in my top 100 starters for 2020 fantasy baseball, and I’m not adding him right now, but if I were doing my rankings over, I would add him around 100-ish (out of 150-ish starters in a top 100; don’t ask). When baseball returns, and the Jays say Pearson is in the rotation (or even bullpen), I will add him. He’s a great dart throw towards the end of drafts. A…*pinkie to mouth*…Draft throw! Hmm, needs work.
