How Does Prized Pitching Prospect Jack Leiter Look Early In Texas Rangers Camp? His Catcher Fills Us In
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Catcher Sam Huff knows when to tell Jack Leiter to shut up.
When Leiter, the Texas Rangers prized pitching prospect and No. 2 overall pick from the 2021 MLB draft, starts overanalyzing things, that's when Huff knows to shut it down.
"There were stints where he'd talk to me in between innings, saying 'Let's do X,Y, and Z, and I'm sitting there looking at him," said Huff, who understands the desire to overanalyze as a catcher. "If you're throwing a fastball by guys, why would you throw a curveball, or why would you throw your third-best pitch? Why are you doing the hitter a favor?"
In those moments, including before Leiter took a break last summer to reevaluate himself, Huff said Leiter was too often over-thinking on the mound.
"In the moment, you've got to slow him down," Huff said. "When we talk, it's about keeping it simple. If he talks to me about more than a couple of things, I'm going to shut him up. Just keep it simple."
Huff caught Leiter's bullpen session during Wednesday's workout. He sees a drastic difference from last season. Leiter is scheduled to pitch an inning in the Rangers' Cactus League opener at 1 p.m. Friday at Surprise Stadium.
"He looked good," Huff said. "It's his north-south game and having the slider more on the plate. It's hard to hit a fastball at 96-98 [mph] with that spin rate, and then with that 12-6 curveball and a slider that's short and down on the plate, and he has a changeup working in there."
Unlike a typical curveball, a 12-6 (referring to a clock's hands) breaks down on a more straight line instead of breaking across the strike zone. Leiter is also working on adding a cutter. He threw it to Huff a couple of times on Wednesday.
"It looks good. If he can add that against lefties and playing both sides of the plate. It's more chest-high for him, especially to lefties," Huff said.
"He just needs to go after guys. He's got all this stuff. He's got the capability to do everything. I believe in him 100%," Huff said. "I've worked with him a little bit in Triple-A last year, and this year he looks even better.
"He wants to cut down on everything he does, and he wants to get better at everything he does, too," Huff added. "I told him, 'Man, if you want me to sit more plate, I'll sit more plate, but just throw it through me, let your stuff play. Like he's got plus-plus stuff. He's capable of striking out anybody with his stuff and doing it for a long time."
Any discussion more than that with Leiter, nope. Huff doesn't want to hear it.
"I don't want to hear anything else but just how simple his routine is and if I can see him sitting there thinking, I'm gonna have to go change it up or something," he said. "We think ahead of things sometimes, but Jack's elite, I think he's going to have a good year, I believe in him. I think he's going to do special stuff.
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