CLEVELAND — Carlos Lagrange’s pitching plan should double as a schedule for the Triple-A ballparks hosting him to get a tune-up on their radar guns.
The Yankees’ top-ranked pitching prospect made his second Triple-A relief appearance of the season Tuesday as he transitions from starting with an eye on joining the major league bullpen later this season. He entered with a runner on first base in the seventh inning and threw six fastballs above 101 mph over 2 ²/₃ innings.
“He knows the name of the game is still to throw nasty stuff in the zone and stay in control, and he can’t really get himself sped up mentally to just want to throw 105 out of the bullpen because he can,” Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitching coach Spencer Medick told The Post by phone. “You saw him a couple times where it’s 99 in the strike zone. With two strikes, here’s a 102 fastball up just to let one rip. That’s stuff he’s capable of.
“But he’s still intelligent. That’s where I think starting has really helped him learn to navigate [how to] get a guy out. Making sure the priority stays Strike 1, getting to two strikes and putting a guy away using all his pitches rather than ‘I’m just going to be a thrower.’”
