Profiling Las Vegas' Nate Nitro

Nate Nitro Scouting Profile

Personal Information
First Name: Nate
Last Name: Nitro
Height: 5’11
Weight: 185 lbs
Date of Birth: 01/01/2000
Birthplace: Bronx, New York City, NY, USA
Position: P
Number: 99
Archetype: Power Pitcher
Throws: Right
Bats: Right

SBLM Draft Results: Drafted in 6th Round, 3rd Pick by Las Vegas [23rd Overall]

Nate Nitro is your typical person -- walk by him on the streets and you probably wouldn't recognize him as a professional baseball player. Just another athletic, average 5'11 white guy rocking some locks and a trimmed beard. But put him on the baseball diamond and Nitro evolves into a whole another person -- a competitor who craves the baseball and likes to control games while he is on the mound.

It was interesting to see how Nitro ended up in the SBLM Draft on equal footing with just about everybody else. Of course, some of the active guys who had jobs within the SBL community was going to go off the board first... but what about Nitro? A guy without a job, but a solid agency history? And at a position that was starved across the league, pitcher? You can find hitters anywhere, but you need somebody competent to throw to the other teams' batters and be able to consistently get them out, right?! Nitro ended up being the third pitcher selected to the board for the Centurions, so that was interesting to see. Las Vegas likes their pitchers and Nitro seems to have fit in very well thus far.

Strengths

Fastball/Cutter Combo - Nitro hails from the Bronx, so you know where he gets his inspiration from. Mariano Rivera was a Hall of Fame reliever who made a career out of his fastball/cutter combo. It was so hard for opposing batters to differentiate between the two and they'd often end up looking like fools when the cutter comes in with its last-second movement. Nitro emulated Rivera for a long time and he looks forward to taking his pitch talents over to the SBL to see if they will work equally just as good.

Work Ethic - Nitro is a consistent and a self-driven worker. You won't really have to check in on him or remind him to do his workouts - Nitro is going to be one of the first people into the team practice facilities and one of the last to walk out. He isn't a natural athletic freak, but his work ethic more than makes up for it. That's something that teams, especially managers, love to have on their team.


Cons

Pitch Movement - Nitro went with a balanced all-around build with his first 100 TPE, but that also meant that his pitch movement doesn't have much zip to it. It's going to be pretty much straightforward and easy for the batters to read/make contact with. This is one of the immediate areas of improvement for Nitro if he's to really have success with two pitches that are virtually the same but relies heavily on the movement factor at the last moment [cutter]. The change-up will be okay as it's completely different. But a little more movement to really send it packing straight into the dirt and out of the batters' reach would be ideal too.

Pitch Velocity / Stamina - Nitro did not add any points into his velocity and just got his stamina up to 40 for cheap. That isn't going to help Nitro much... if you've got a crazy fast pitch that you can just blow by everybody, stamina might not mean much so you can carve out a spot as a reliever pretty quick. When you don't have velocity, you could be a long reliever or a spot starter that eats up innings... but not to have much of either stamina or velocity... that's going to be interesting to see if Nitro can really find consistent success. The change-up will need a little more zip to it if it's going to fool batters who are looking for Nitro's fastball or cutter.