MLB Daily Notes - April 23
A daily automated report of what happened yesterday in Major League Baseball, along with other recent trends and further analysis
The Daily Notes are the flagship resource of MLB Data Warehouse. Every morning, Jon breaks down the current goings on in the fantasy baseball world, and an automated daily report gets you up to date on key stats and trends. Become a paid subscriber at MLB Data Warehouse to get this unlocked in your inbox every morning!
There were a few rotation debuts last night that deserve some looking into.
DIDIER FUENTES
The dude is already back in AAA. They called him up to use him for three innings and then optioned him back to AAA probably before he had even gotten a shower after the game. It didn’t have to do with his performance, that was clearly the plan as they navigate this rotation through the early parts of the year. JR Ritchie replaced him and will start today. Fuentes did this:
→ 3 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 7 SO, 1 BB
It took him 74 pitches to get thruogh three innings, not good. But he did get a ton of whiffs (15, 20.3% SwStr%) and did not throw many balls at all (28.4%). It seems like he should have been a lot more efficient than he was.
Predictably, it was very heavy four-seam usage.
It’s not completely out of control, though. 55% would work fine with how good that pitch is, especially if that slider is going to work as well as it did last night. But he’s back in AAA, so we don’t really need him on fantasy rosters. If you have him in a deep league, I’d hold on - it shouldn’t be long before he’s back. He could even make a start next week and just stay in the rotation after that.
As for JR Ritchie. He has throw 27.1 innigs in AAA this year with a 0.99 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP, a 26.2% K%, a 12.1% BB%, and a 0.33 HR/9.
That looks like some good luck. The fScores on him:
100 Stuff
110 Control
108 ERA
105 Overall
His 11.5% SwStr% in AAA along with that fStuff show you that he’s not going to be much of a strikeout pitcher in the Majors. His four-seamer averages 93.8, and he throws mostly changeups and curves behind it. Really not a recipe for MLB strikeouts. But the command has usually been good and he’s been really tough in multiple ways this year in the minors.
I don’t think I’d start him in like a ten team league. The upside is significantly higher with Fuentes
CONNOR PRIELIPP (4.0IP 4H 2ER 2R 6K 0BB)
One of those harder last names to spell… He thew 42 sliders out of 83 pitches (51%). Six strikeouts, no walks, that’s good. The 12% SwStr% and 22% CSW% aren’t great, though. His fastball averaged 95.7 and posted a great 57% Strike%, but only got one whiff. He also gave up a bunch of fly balls without being hurt by them.
But 42 sliders… that’s too many. That’s too many times, man. Once or twice is cool, but 80 90 times, man?
I’m not sure how many Trailer Park Boys references are understood out there, but I couldn’t help myself.
The slider usage was probably about splits. He threw just seven pitches to left-handed batters (although five of those were sliders, too). It makes sense to go heavy slider against righties if you feel good about throwing it for strikes, but when lefties are up - you’ve gotta have a fastball or a changeup.
Prielipp is certainly better than many guys in MLB rotations, but I doubt he’ll be a top 80 fantasy arm moving forward.
JOSE SORIANO (5.0IP 7H 0ER 0R 4K 0BB)
16 whiffs this time! He’s up to a 14.9% SwStr% with a 36.8% Ball% and a 58% GB%.
But now the four-seamer kinda sucks with a 6.7% SwStr%. The whiffs are coming from the sinker, which doesn’t make a ton of sense, and the curveball - which does make a lot of sense. And I suppose the presence of the four-seamer and teh splitter and the slider make the sinker and curve play up.
I don’t know, it’s pretty tough to deny 37.2 innings with 18 hits, 43 strikeouts, 13 walks, and one run allowed. He is way out front on the player rater.
MAX FRIED (8.0IP 3H 0ER 0R 9K 2BB)
He got a big player rater boost after his gem last night against the Red Sox. He got 18 whiffs on 100 pitches. I don’t even need to tell you the SwStr% then, because I already did!
Did you ever realize that word “percent” is literally “per one hundred”.
CENT = 100
You can very often know what a word means just by looking at the prefix and suffix. I wonder if they still teach kids about prefices and suffices. And how to properly pluralize a word that ends in x?
Fried’s velo is still down.
Fried might be the pitcher in the least who is the least dependent on velocity. He throws a million different pitch types and he’s like impossible to hit hard or hit in the air. So it’s fine. Just keep starting Fried, he’s a “set it and forget it” pitcher.
FASTBALL VELO INCREASERS (+1.5MPH OR BETTER)
FASTBALL VELO DECREASERS (-2.0MPH OR WORSE)
