Peyton Battenfield - July 2019
Photo by Jayne Hansen
When I spoke with Battenfield last week in Tri-City, he attributed his fast start to pitch command. "Commanding all my pitches. I'm taking all the data that we get with each one of my pitches and I try to improve on my secondary pitches every week. Just being able to throw a lot of strikes, get ahead in counts, I think that's been really beneficial."
Battenfield throws a low 90's fastball that tops out at 94 or 95, a curveball, changeup and a cutter/slider that is a work in progress. Of that last pitch, Battenfield said, "We haven't really figured out a name for it yet because that's the pitch I'm working on right now the most, just trying to get consistent movement with that pitch." He's also working on the curveball to generate a harder pitch with more movement, and he cites his changeup as his best offspeed pitch currently due to the consistency and movement of that pitch. His fastball doesn't have downward movement on it as is often the case with taller pitchers like the 6'4" Battenfield. "My fastball fights gravity. Most of the time if a ball has a low spin rate, it will drop. Mine actually fights gravity and will stay up," said Battenfield.
As to other things he's working on, he told me, "I'm always working on commanding the ball, throwing it right where I want it to go." Of his delivery, Battenfield said, "(There are) always areas to improve, always a way to be more efficient to throw harder, throw better quality strikes more consistently. But I feel comfortable right now with what I'm doing."
Tri-City Pitching Coach John Kovalik had high praise for Battenfield, "The great thing about Peyton is that we've seen a lot of growth in him as a pitcher since he's been here, but also (he's) just an extremely high character player. Really, really high character. Extremely professional. Handles his business the right way. And I think that's a big reason why he gets the results that he does on the field is because he knows how to show up to the park everyday and get it done. Just an overall good human being. He's been an absolute pleasure to work with. He's got some really, really good stuff already so with him, it's more just refining how he uses it. But overall, he's been really receptive to everything I've thrown at him and, like I said, just an overall pleasure to work with."
Asked what a scout might say about him, he said, "Hopefully they would think that I'm aggressive. I attack the zone. I'm not scared of anything. It doesn't matter the situation I come in. I'm prepared to take whatever situation it is and do the best that I can. Things I need to improve on is definitely my slider. I still throw it in games. I was getting swing and miss on it, but I'm still not getting the right movement that I want on it. Hopefully they just see that I'm aggressive and attack hitters."
Tri-City Manager Ozney Guillen echoed that scouting report in his assessment of Battenfield, "He's more polished. He went to a good college, a big time D1 so he's used to the pressure. The good thing is that he's not scared to pitch. A lot of times, you see guys that get drafted and they come here and that's kind of the problem is that they're a little scared of the environment or just suddenly out of their comfort zone but he's done very well and I think he'll keep moving on up very quickly."
Battenfield didn't play much during his freshman year in college, but his role expanded the next two years, "My sophomore year, I got a bigger role as a guy who was coming out of the 'pen more consistently. I had the same role this past year. I was the guy that they would go to if we were in trouble or if we needed long relief. I was anywhere from a long relief to short relief to closer, just anywhere they needed me." Battenfield showed marked improvement in his junior year, something he attributes to changing his arm slot. "My ball moves completely different (with a higher arm slot). My velo went up. My secondary pitches were sharper. That helped out a lot with getting people out," said Battenfield. Although he was almost exclusively a relief pitcher in college, the Astros have already had him start two games out of his six appearances.
Peyton's brother Blake was drafted in 2017, also out of Oklahoma State University and is currently pitching for the White Sox AA affiliate in Birmingham. The two brothers high school and college careers overlapped a bit, giving them the experience of playing on the same teams together, "I got to play in my freshman season with him. I sat out most of that season for when they'd go on road trips, but at the end of the year, I made the travel roster so I got to play with him and win a Big 12 championship as an eight-seed in a Big 12 tournament. So that was really fun because I got to win a state championship with him in high school and then, my freshman year, I got to win a Big 12 tournament championship. That's something cool to (share) with your older brother." (The Battenfield brothers have two younger sisters as well.)
Having a brother who has traveled the minor league road before you can come in handy and that is not necessarily limited to brotherly advice, "It wasn't necessarily advice about how this process works or anything. It was more (that) this last summer, I got to travel down and see him and talk to him about throwing different pitches in different counts and just the TrackMan data that we get, how it helped him out, helped him figure out where he needed to pitch in certain spots to be the most effective. I think that I definitely got some help on (that). And just seeing how, throughout the last two years, how it's gone for him whenever he's lived in different spots, how his days work. That way I was a little prepared for it instead of coming in blind. It wasn't necessarily one little thing. It was just like combined over the last few years."
Despite knowing what to expect, Battenfield was still a little surprised by how laid-back minor league life feels compared to college, "In college, I feel like you went to class and then after class, you went to baseball, and then baseball went until dinnertime and then you went to dinner and then you went and studied and you went back to your room and you fell asleep and you repeated the same thing the next day. So here, since it's my job, I don't have to be here until 1:00 or 2:00 most days. I get to sleep in and if I don't get to sleep in, I get up and run some errands and do some things. There's definitely not as much stuff to do even though I'm here for 8-10 hours a day. It's just different."
Off the field, Battenfield looks forward to spending time with his fiancé Grace (who based on his Instagram feed is drop-dead gorgeous, by the way). And he has a little bit of a unique hobby, "I like building things. I've actually built two guns. That's kind of an expensive hobby that I have. I do enjoy doing that. It's something me and my cousin do back home because we like to go out to some land and target shoot. I actually really enjoy being able to sit down for a little bit and just basically close my mind off and just worry about building something." Another somewhat surprising fact about the blonde-haired Battenfield is that he is of Cherokee heritage.
But none of that really gives you much insight into his personality. After watching him for three days on and off the field, I was most impressed by what a great teammate and person he is. He was always upbeat and quick with a smile. He was the first to cheerfully volunteer to help out the pitching coach with something or form a line to high-five some kids during pre-game activities. During the game, he would dance to the music, join in on Y-M-C-A or instigate rally caps in the dugout. In short, I think he will be making a lot of fans during his baseball journey.
Y-M-C-A
Rally Caps
Thank you for your time, Peyton, and best of luck as your season continues to unfold.
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Franny Cobos and Juan Pablo Lopez
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