I worked a West Sioux game behind the plate this year and Dekkers was pitching. Mid nineties is scary as frig when you’re behind a high school catcher.
There are probably six or eight kids in the entire state who could consistently even get the bat around on a 93 mph fastball. Dekkers is a little unique in that he’s pure power. He just hammers that ball toward home and nobody can keep up; curveball and change not needed. He doesn’t necessarily have stand out accuracy, but kids are scared shitless and just swing at air. Most of the time their hands weren’t through the zone yet and the ball was in the catcher’s mitt. I watched their West Lyon game from the stands, and he made a 27-1 team of good hitters look like it was their first day. Watched a couple football games as well last year—he can launch it like Elway, but not on the money as often as I think you’d want in P5 ball.
As a hitter, the closest thing I can compare it to from my own experience is hitting against Nic Ungs when I was in high school. He was up at that same velocity, and as an Iowa high schooler you’re just not ready for that. Pitching machines don’t do dick for timing and no one can throw you BP that even comes close to replicating it. You can move the L-net closer to time it, but that still doesn’t simulate the tail that a baseball thrown that hard has.
tl;dr, Dekkers has the most powerful arm I’ve ever seen in person, but I don’t think he’s as accurate yet as he needs to be. Brute force will only go so far unless he cleans it up.
