Jackson
Auster

With Oaks Christian mounting a rally late in the game I got a chance to see Auster for the second time this spring in his “fireman” role as the top arm out of the Thousand Oaks pen. The second look was another good one at the low slot righthander who is convincing me of his high-leverage relief profile for the next level. While the FB velocity doesn’t jump off the page at 84-86 MPH the low it’s his ability to manipulate the shape of his FB that helps it play above the pure velocity. Auster can either sink it with arm side run down in the zone that produced a trio of groundballs (two of the INF 1B type and the other for an out) or to ride the offering while still getting arm side running action up in the zone to induce soft fly ball contact or chase above the zone (jammed LH hitter with elevated FB and K’d another with elevated FB). His primary secondary is a softer SLD in the 72-74 MPH range which will vary shape from a short tight offering into more of a sweepy style breaking ball. I’m not quite sure if he is intending to vary those shapes or if it’s more of a “feel” thing where he hasn’t mastered the exact shape he wants on it, but I personally like the sweepier style version especially to RH hitters which picked up a chase for a K to end the game. Already solidly built there isn’t a ton of projection left in Auster’s frame, but there is still some to the overall pitching operation especially with the addition of a CHG in the future could slide him into a starting spot for the Lancers in the future, but if not his profile as a high leverage reliever is a strong one.