Thunder’s Bucknam continues to turn heads on mound
TRENTON » When Micah Bucknam was placed on the Thunder roster for the MLB Draft League season he came with the tag attached of one of the league’s top prospects.
The 18-year-old right-hander out of Abbotsford, British Columbia is committed to LSU as part of the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class, according to Perfect Game, but he’s certainly helping his draft stock with each outing.
Bucknam worked the first two frames of the Thunder’s 4-2 victory over Mahoning Valley in Tuesday’s series opener and with it lowered his ERA to 0.64. In total, Bucknam has allowed just one earned run in 14 innings and is holding opponents to a .156 batting average.
“He’s learning how to really pitch,” manager Jeff Manto said. “That is what’s impressive for somebody that young to know how to pitch. (On Tuesday), he didn’t have his best stuff, but he still pitched his way out of it. Usually you see these young kids come out with one speed and he had the wherewithal to pull back a little bit when he didn’t have his best stuff.”
At 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, Bucknam, who turns 19 in August, still has plenty of room to grow. His fastball is consistently between 90-92 and he works in a breaking ball — he calls it a slurve — and change-up as well as developing a cutter.
“He’s not even grown into his body yet,” Manto said. “Once everything loosens up in his shoulder and he learns how to stretch and throw and lift weights properly, he’s going to be a force.”
The Blue Jays saw enough to draft him in the 16th round last summer, but he opted not to turn pro.
“It’s understanding what the scouting is, what the major leagues is, what the minor leagues is and what your experience is going to be like,” Bucknam said earlier this
month. “It’s a big step and opportunity regardless of whatever happens. I feel more mature this year. Last year, I felt so in awe of it all and even this year having the opportunity to pitch here, I feel way more in a better mindset.”
Speaking of strong pitching, right-hander Alec Whaley has come out of the bullpen and pitched to a 0.48 ERA in 18.2 innings.
An O’Fallon, Missouri native, Whaley arrived in Trenton after completing his career at Murray State where he had a 4.29 ERA in 50.1 innings this season.
With the victory in Thursday’s series opener, the Thunder improved to 12-10 overall and moved to within a half game of first place Williamsport.
The first half of the season concludes on July 16 as the league breaks for the MLB Draft and then restocks the rosters. The firsthalf winner will host a one-game championship playoff against the second-half winner to determine who wins the league.
Entering play on Wednesday, the six teams
are separated by three games.
“Everybody is coming out and the adrenaline is flying,” Manto said. “We’ll get a better feel where everybody is in a week or two when everybody starts to run out of gas, run out of adrenaline and we’ll see the true talent come out.”
Manto said he didn’t have a walk-up song when he was playing the big leagues.
“I had the crowd,” he said.
The quip came amongst a larger discussion about speeding up the game and whether the Draft League should implement a pitch clock the way minor league baseball has.
“What they should do is eliminate some of these songs,” Manto said. “Some guys wait for their song to start, their name to be announced and then they come to the plate. What they should do is have a five-second clock to get to the batters’ box. Forget about the pitch clock, a five-second clock to get to the batters’ box.
“I think it’s the batter taking his time to get up to the plate because he needs to hear Stairway to Heaven. It’s like enough is enough already.”