A's sign kid from viral video

I know little about the where's or when's but the kid in the video above was just signed to a minor league contract after this video of him pitching with RADAR was posted.

Before anyone says it, I know he's taking a skip step to hit 96 mph, but he's also throwing on level ground without a rubber to push off of.

The kid has got some juice in his arm...hopefully, he makes the most of this opportunity.

I remember years ago going to Italian Fest, or one of those festivals down on the waterfront in Newport. There was a Mennonite kid there....probably 20-ish years old, wearing canvas trousers, boots, and a button up shirt with sleeves rolled up. The Reds had a pitching booth there with a radar and he was standing there in those clothes and pitched for about 5 minutes. He had a big leg-kick delivery, a la El Duque. Every one of his pitches was between like 82 and 94 mph....and there must've thrown about 20 of them straight while he was pitching.

Kind of reminded me of Kingpin.

While this is a cool story, there’s a little bit more to this than kid appearing on this viral video. He’s actually been working out and training since February and has been on the A’s and other teams radar since then, and began playing in an adult league all summer in hopes of getting a deal. And the video that’s circulating is over a month old. He likely would have gotten signed without the video.

Still a really cool story.

Struck out the side swinging in the first inning that he pitched since being signed two weeks ago.