Film Review: Noah Cameron

Royals prospect Noah Cameron is turning heads with a new cutter and the same bulldog mentality.

Noah Cameron grabbed the attention of Royals prospect hounds in his professional debut season when he mowed through the Complex League, low-A, and high-A all in 2022. He posted a 3.56 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and 99 strikeouts in 65.1 IP led by a nasty curveball and plenty of feel to pitch.

Royals commentators wondered if he might be the pitching version of Vinnie Pasquantino, a mid-round gem who fell in the draft because of injury concerns.

Then, 2023 brought Cameron back to earth. As it does with so many pitchers, the promotion to AA proved a difficult one for Cameron. His strikeout rate when down. His walk rate went up. And the stuff that was slaying high-A hitters wasn’t fooling anyone in the Texas League. At AA in 2023, Cameron put up a 6.10 ERA and a 5.41 FIP in 72.1 IP.

But 2024 is a new season, and Cameron has new hope. He’s added a cutter, refined his command, and he’s off to a hot start for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. In three starts, he’s got a 1.84 ERA, a 2.47 FIP and he has yet to allow a home run. His strikeout rate is back up to an impressive 27.7% and his walk rate is a respectable 7.7%. He also has a career high 40.5% ground ball rate.

I watched his most recent outing against one of the Texas League’s best offenses, the

Midland Rockhounds, and I came away thoroughly impressed.

The new cutter plays

Watching some of his outings from last season, it was clear that Cameron’s four-seam fastball wasn’t going to be enough. It’s not bad, but it isn’t good either. He sits around 92-93 MPH with it, and it can generate some swing and miss up in the zone. But it’s also very hittable in spots, and can generate a lot of power outcomes for offenses, especially right handers.

The new cutter is a revelation in combination with that four-seamer. In the outing I watched, he used the cutter more early in counts to set up the four-seamer, which he would throw at the top of the zone to generate whiffs. The Midland lineup was stacked with righties (which Cameron can expect his whole career given how good his curveball is), and he just kept pounding the righties in on the hands with cutters. Midland hitters really struggled to make good contact on it.

In the video above, you can see an example of Cameron working that cutter under the hands of a right hander. He was SUPER aggressive the whole outing coming inside to righties with it, and it worked all night.

The pitch sequencing was incredible

The new cutter is allowing Cameron to put together some excellent pitch sequences to hitters because it fits so well in his arsenal. As a pitch, it moves down and in to righties. He also has a good changeup that moves down and way from righties, a killer curveball that moves straight down, and four-seam fastball that compared to the others must look like it’s moving up. All four also come in at different velocities. So, he working at different speeds to every quadrant of the strike zone.

The video above is the first pitch of the Eierman at bat. A wicked changeup got him to 0-2 the next pitch.

So, Eierman is standing there looking at Cameron’s pitch and he has to wonder ‘Is this going to come in on me like the cutter just did, straight down like I know his curveball does, or away like his changeup?’.

He chooses wrong, and it’s 0-2.

After fouling off a decent four-seamer up, Eierman gets this curveball.

A downer curveball after his four-seam fastball is tremendous sequencing. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone is supposed to hit Cameron when he’s commanding all four pitches like he was in this outing.

Cameron is in command

Speaking of his command, Cameron showed complete control of his arsenal in this outing. He was spotting the curveball wherever he wanted it to go. The changeup. The cutter. The four-seamer. They were all where he wanted them to be.

That will be important for him. Cameron won’t be a fastball dominant pitcher in Major League Baseball; he’ll need to command those secondary pitches if he hopes to keep hitters off his cutter and four seamer.

It won’t surprise me if the cutter becomes his primary fastball either, as the movement makes it less hittable than four-seamer and he’ll see a ton of righties at every level anyway.

Part of me wonders if Cameron has, will, or could add velocity, as well. There’s no gun on the video I watched so I don’t have a sense of how hard he was throwing. Guys were late on a lot of his four seamers, but that could be for other reasons. If he’s able to pitch with that four-seamer at 94-95 MPH and the cutter at 91-92, that would give him a really good chance to stick in MLB.

It’s still very early, but Cameron may end up another jewel in the crown of this new pitching development team.