I went to check out the first start for the newest Detroit Tigers pitching prospect Reese Olson, who the Tigers picked up at the trade deadline for Daniel Norris.

Olson looked like he added more muscle to his 6’1, 160 lb frame with stocky shoulders and tree trunk like legs. Not much else he could add to his frame.

He throws from a high ¾ arm slot as he raises his left knee slightly and rocks back slightly before he drops and drives the pitch home with above- average arm speed. He does have a slight head wack but did not seem to affect his delivery too much as his windup was consistent and repeatable.

There was a lot to like in Reese Olson’s start. His fastball sat at 92-94 T96 in the first two innings. The fastball had some good tailing action on lefties and it was a good pitch that he threw for strikes. While it generated just a few swings and misses, one of his four strikeouts was caught looking. Whenever someone did make contact with it, it was weak contact as of his 80 pitches, 53 were strikes and was able to establish the pitch to get ahead early in counts. It was an above-average offering.

In addition to his fastball, he throws a slider, changeup and a curveball. Let’s start with the curveball since he did not throw until the 4th inning. The curve had 10/4 action and lacked consistency that seemed to unintentionally hang at the top of the zone. It sat around 77-79. He threw just a handful of times to provide a different look but overall, it looked like a work in progress so with further reps and instruction, should be at least fringe-average.

His slider was his best pitch. It was around 85-87 MPH and was able to generate five swings and misses including a strikeout. It had good darting action with late life on lefties, diving down hard. This has potential to be a good strikeout pitch.

Lastly, his changeup was around 82-85 with five swings and misses including a strikeout but it was a nice change of pace from his fastball and he uses it to get hitters out in front as evidenced by the ground ball outs and fly ball outs he was able to generate. Good arm speed deception as it is consistent with above-average sink and fade with it.

The first two innings he was hitting 95-96 but his last four innings were 92-94. There is a slight reliever risk with his profile because of his fastball speed fading but this was his longest outing of the year ( 6 innings). With the Tigers needing starting pitcher depth badly in their system, he could be seen as a backend rotation option.

Pitching grades overall:

55/55 Fastball

50/60 Changup

50/55 Slider

40/45 Curve

45/50 Control

40/45 Command