Mechanical adjustment helps Reynaldo Lopez dominate low Single-A in late 2014

Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez had a string of 48 1/3 innings last season without allowing an earned run while with low Single-A Hagerstown. It is expected that the 21-year-old Lopez will move up to high Single-A Potomac this season. Scouts have been pleasantly surprised with how the Dominican hurler can maintain his strength in the later innings. Nationals director of player development Mark Scialabba detailed why the club believes Lopez was able to make his fastball even more lethal last season. "What impressed me the most about him is that he can maintain velocity, his arm strength, his quickness," Scialabba said. "He made a mechanical adjustment, something that our coaches did a great job with how to leverage the baseball better, something that clicked and made him the better pitcher that he is now. I think he is going to continue to learn how to harness the secondary stuff. He has a lot of upside." Lopez surrendered only one earned run in nine games from July 22 to Sept. 5. In eight of his final 10 starts of the season, he pitched at least 5 2/3 innings and in six of those games lasted six full frames. "With Reynaldo, he was unique in that he's throwing up 100 mph early on and it was still 94, 96 mph in the sixth inning," Scialabba said. "But also to be able to throw strikes and throw the ball down in the strike zone, that something that separates him more than just someone that's going to go up there and throw. He's a pitcher. He has the potential to be a starting pitcher with that arm." Lopez finished 4-1 with a 1.33 ERA in nine starts for the Suns after beginning the season with short-season Single-A Auburn. Next, we will examine what the future one-two punch of a 6-foot-6 Lucas Giolito and the 6-foot Lopez will look like in the same rotation. Could they stay together as a package deal all the way to the big leagues?