[ad_1]
The Braves didn’t appear to miss a beat on Friday night, as they came out of two straight days off (one scheduled, one due to rain) to deliver a straight pass for an elite to date Aaron Nola and the Phillies. They’ll try to keep him going in what seems like a pretty odd game for what has been a bizarre season so far.
Let’s start with Robbie Erlin, who went from leaving the Padres, to giving up the Pirates, dropping a grand slam on his first pitch as a Brave, to seemingly a spinning match in the decimated rotation of Atlanta. Erlin’s first start, which took place in Miami on Sunday, was just about everything one would expect from the 29-year-old left-hander: four one-stroke innings of the ball, no walk and no run . It was also very strange for a specific reason: although Erlin was not specifically a “playground pitcher” in his career, he still got the ball on the field at a league-average pace. . Yet in his four innings against the Marlins, he had a grand total of zero wormkillers, the lowest pitch angle against him on a ball in play that day was 14 degrees, and the average was 43.5 degrees. No starter so far this season has given up eight or more balls in play in an outing with a higher average throw angle, although Lance Lynn is very close. It probably won’t happen again, but it was pretty bizarre for 2020.
Speaking of weird, let’s get to the real meat of this game in this regard: Phillies big off-season acquisition Zack Wheeler. (Also, my kingdom for an ability to cover an Erlin-Eflin game. Alas, Eflin will apparently pitch for the Phils tomorrow.) Signed for a five-year, $ 118 million contract in the offseson, Wheeler’s main stats at through four departures seem to be good if not outright appealing to his new employers: 62 ERA- (yay), 77 FIP- (yay), 99 xFIP- (maybe a tad bit disappointing, but in line with a career of 97 and that only makes four starts).
But, if you look a little deeper … the mouth of madness opens. In those four starts, Wheeler has only struck out 12 batters, posting a strikeout rate that has been roughly halved compared to its previous performance. Of the 92 pitchers who have pitched at least 20 innings so far this season, only Ryan Weber and Mike Fiers have a lower strikeout rate, only seven pitchers have a lower K% -BB% (Wheeler’s is 6, 0%, given 12 strikeouts and In fact, Wheeler seems to have made it his personal mission to add more ball action to baseball: of all the pitchers who pitched 20 innings or more, he has the most low percentage of three true results (that is, the percentage of PAs that end in a home run, walk or out) in baseball, just 13%.
None of this is normal for Wheeler – it’s not who he is. Aside from a five-start streak with 14 strikeouts in August-September 2019, he’s only had 12 or fewer strikeouts in four starts twice, both dating back to 2013. Even stranger, his stats of Discipline at plate are essentially Compared to 2019, the only plate discipline metrics for Wheeler in 2020 that aren’t even less than one percent of his previous score are z-swing (up nearly three percent ), o-contact (up just over three percent) and overall contact (up about two percent). Zone tariffs and odor tariffs are essentially the same. (Note that under different typing box formulations, for example, Statcast vs. BIS, this isn’t necessarily the case, but it’s still weird.)
Either way, the Phillies probably can’t complain too much about this, as they’ve won three of Wheeler’s four starts. Stay tuned, and we’ll see together if Erlin can maintain what he did against the Marlins (both in terms of no grounders and no leads), and if Wheeler will maintain the magnetism. of ball in play. it is exposed so far.
The Phillies tried to strengthen their relief corps yesterday, acquiring former Brave David Hale from the Yankees, as well as Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree from the Red Sox. Hale and Workman were both really good last year (Workman was elite), while Hembree is more of a last list guy. We’ll see if that makes a difference for a relief corps that has been bad enough, but looks a lot worse due to luck and random variation.
Game Info
Philadelphia Phillies @ Atlanta Braves
7:10 p.m. EDT, August 22, 2020
Truist Park (sigh), Atlanta, Georgia
Television: Fox Sports South
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM, WNNX 100.5, Braves Radio Network
XM Radio: XM 186 (broadcast 841)
PS In every game with Zack Wheeler I have to mention that the Giants once traded him for half a season of Carlos Beltran in a season they didn’t even make the playoffs. Let’s all see and laugh at the Giants.
[ad_2]
Source link