Suarez showed why he was a highly regarded second-round draft pick of the Giants in 2015 during his start against the Modesto Nuts. In the outing, he had plus command of four pitches and ended the night with nine K’s over seven innings, allowing one run. He worked quickly with a repeatable delivery and put his strong, athletic body and good flexibility on display. The delivery has a slight pause and turn over the rubber, and he shields the ball behind his back well to create a deceptive delivery.

He worked his 89-to-91 mph fastball with command to both the glove and arm side, and he utilized a two-seam with late arm side tail. Suarez’s 74-to-75 mph plus curveball kept hitters off balance, having 12-to-6 break, and throwing it in any count for strikes. He spotted the curve on both sides of the plate and was able to dial up the spin when ahead in the count to get the punchout.

The plus slider sat 80-to-81 mph and was tight with hard lateral break. He was able to throw it at the left-handed hitters and break it over the inside of the plate or away off the outside of the plate. He really created problems for the lefties by having the slider and curve come out of the same arm angle with different breaks and kept them guessing all night. When working against the righties, he included an above-average 82-to-84 mph straight changeup that showed good arm-side tumble while replicating his fastball arm speed and release point well. The offering induced a lot of easy groundballs.

Over the outing he showcased a strong understanding of pitching, changed pitch sequences multiple times through the lineup and threw off-speed back-to-back in hitters’ counts. If he continues to showcase the plus command of four pitches, he should be making a push for Double-A Richmond by midseason. – Ryan Ozella