Can someone Compare/Contrast Knapp and Decaro
- Thread starter mpaer
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For me, the things that set Knapp apart from anyone we’ve had in a long time were his ability to consistently command all his pitches, the late life on his fastball, and his ability to avoid hitters’ counts, control his emotions, and seldom leave a pitch hanging. As much of a complete pitcher as I’ve seen at the college level.
This, with an emphasis on his consistent command. Don’t see it often at this level and a big part of the reason he was able to go deep into every game.
knapp had an elite fastball that hit 97-98 in-game that he could throw both 4-seam and 2-seam to keep hitters off-balance while throwing it for strikes 70% of the time, so he got ahead of a lot of batters, shortened counts, and let his off-speeds play up despite only okay movement because hitters were so on their back foots from the heater.
decaro's fastball has unremarkable velo and unremarkable shape/movement, which makes his margin for error with it really tiny and leads to a higher level of variance in his outings, because if his location isn't perfect or if his pitch sequencing gets predictable, he can get hammered or at the very least he's not missing bats and hitters can take at-bats against him deep. he compensates by having three off-speeds with high spin and really distinct movement profiles, which help him get weak contact with sequencing and deception, and minus like 3 outings this season he's been good enough at those things to limit traffic and put up 0s -- but because he needs everything to be working, it means he's going into a lot of deep counts and therefore not lasting as consistently long. he doesn't really have "dominate them" stuff so much as he does craft.
Knapps ability to get 7-8 innings basically every start and throw 100+ pitches is something you never see in college.
it is basically unreplaceable and allows you to have a fresh bullpen every Saturday and Sunday
oh, and it also didn't hurt that knapp was 23-24 and decaro is 20, the amount of stress the arm can take per outing is pretty different before/after age 22 - it was well publicized that knapp and forbes had an agreement that knapp was going to throw until his arm fell off, while forbes is probably being a little more cognizant of decaro's health and future
Lot of good stuff here. A lot
And Knapp could reach back - when all else failed - and throw a heater by you. He’s up to 98 in MiLB too
DeCaro had to land his offspeed to be successful. Lynch has the Knapp ability too.
And Knapp could reach back - when all else failed - and throw a heater by you. He’s up to 98 in MiLB too
DeCaro had to land his offspeed to be successful. Lynch has the Knapp ability too.
This. Knapp had a shape and velocity to his fastball, but he commanded it within the zone. Wasn’t just throwing strikes but moving it up/down, outside on the black or on hitters hands. That attacking fastball allowed him to stay ahead in counts. He didn’t have great secondaries, but that fastball…elite.
Decaro I think has better secondaries (if he’s landing them). He’s just inconsistent batter to batter, and loses mechanics too often.
I actually think Jason is more similar to Shea Sprague in some regards than to Jake. Jake and Ryan have 95-98 in their pocket that they can blow by batters, yes, and they need their offspeed to extend outings by their identity as a pitcher, as it does not rely on it. Their identities are all based on their lively fastballs.
Jason and Shea are similar in the regard that their identity and success rely almost solely on their ability to land their offspeed pitches. They can't rely on blowing their fastball by a batter; instead, they use "pitchability" and place specific offspeed offerings. Both of them have nasty changeups and plus stuff. Jason's FB does reach 94, where Shea topped 91-92 (similar LHP FB profile to Folger), but both MUST have their offspeeds to be effective and provide length. That is one of the reasons they both induce lots of flyouts and are not huge strikeout pitchers. Jason's FB rate is 41.1% and Shea's in 2024 was 41.2%.
Knapp could just sit there and keep pumping fastballs, and teams still couldn’t get to him. Maybe TA or Grace can confirm/ add, but I felt like he could get through the whole lineup once at least without having to throw anything but fastballs. Wasn’t 100 mph, but the command and 4 seam/ 2 seam alone was enough. Last year was just crazy. Don’t think many truly realize how epic his season was.
Not sure if this was mentioned or if I just missed it, but DeCaro has four pitches he can throw for strikes that he's confident throwing in any count. That is rare in college. He reminds me of Zac Gallen (not now but when Zac was at UNC). Zac's fastball was 92-93 (IIRC), so he had to use all of his pitches. Guys with elite fastballs in college usually only have one other pitch they throw. Jason has four.
Several have alluded to Knapp's ability to reach back and hit 97 (like Lynch), but Jake's ability to be in the zone while locating his pitches set him apart...he threw a ton of strikes. And being able to spot that fastball made it more elite. It could be up and in when it needed to be, or low and away, or above the bat, or at the bottom of the zone. He was great at that.
I think the biggest issue I perceive with DeCaro (Lynch and Boaz, as well) is that he tries to nibble too much sometimes. This leads to more balls if you're just off, which runs the pitch count up. JD and Lynch did a good job in the GT series 'commanding the zone,' which to me means they didn't nibble too much but threw strikes that were difficult to barrel up. Hitting locations rather than spots.
Even against ECU yesterday, he wasn't bad. Their first four hits were not hit very hard. It looks bad because he gave up 4 hits and 2 runs in the first. On a different day, though, those could have easily been ground ball outs & you're out of the 1st with 0 runs given up. That's why Forbes said what he did postgame.
Full circle...moving forward, we need to channel that Knapp mentality. You can't afford to walk guys, because we'll face some really good offenses. And teams will kill you with small ball in Omaha if you put guys on base.
I think this is a decent comparison, which is why it frustrates me (and every scout I've seen talk about DeCaro) that Jason's pitch mix has been 60-65% fastball throughout his career, it just isn't a good enough pitch for him to dominate with it like a Knapp or Lynch when he's on. It feels like he + Forbes/Gaines lean too much into that attacking mentality to actually make the most effective use of his talents from week to week.
I've said it before, but it's also always going to be a mystery to me why they seemingly haven't experimented with his fastball grip at all, he gets way too much spin for it to move as little as it does. It'll be interesting to see who drafts him and what, if any, changes they ask him to make.