MLB Daily Notes - April 30
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!
I got ding-dong-ditched last night. Was pretty close to the door so got there pretty quick and opened it to see two kids biking away furiously. It was awesome. Restored some of my faith in the youth.
At this point, I’d be pumped to get TP’d or egged or something like. Get those kids outside, get ‘em up to some healthy 90’s mischief.
I’ve also been helping teach this sports podcasting elective class at my church’s school. It’s about 15 6th-12th graders, and they don’t know ball. We’ve got a kid calling them the “Boston Keltics” and just hearing some ridiculous arguments about how chess is actually a sport. But it’s good to be around kids.
I hope my boys get some sick ding-dong-ditches in someday. I also do hope they can pronounce Celtics correctly, but I will be merciful.
GAVIN WILLIAMS
Elite start from Gavin Williams last night, so we should get an update on him:
Yesterday, he went 7.2 scoreless with nine strikeouts and no walks. That brought his season BB% down from 13.4% to 11.1%. And his ball rate is under 36% now as well.
So that’s a pretty nice combo. A 50.6% Strike% and 34.5% Ball%. The ground ball rate is at 50% to boot.
CADE CAVALLI - 6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 10 SO, 0 BB
Last three starts 25:2 K:BB, 36% K%, 2.9% BB%, .264 xwOBA allowed.
Pitch mix numbers for threse last three:
It’s what we saw last year that got us interested. Good velo and good strike numbers on the four-seamer, and a really good curveball. The curveball is also working at 23% usage with that 53% Strike% and 64% GB%. Those matchups have been against the Giants, Braves, and Mets.
NATHAN EOVALDI - 7.0IP 4H 0ER 0R 7K 1BB
Banger of a start for Eovaldi against the Yankees. That was after giving up six earned runs to the Athletics.
That gets his K% up to 22.5% and the BB% down to 5.8%.
SPLITTERS! Only three starters are throwing their splitter as their primary pitch:
Eovaldi’s splitter isn’t the normal one that bounces in the dirty and goes for chases. It’s in the zone 43% of the time. The league average splitter is in the zone 36% of the time. So there are different ways to go about using the splitter, and Eovaldi seems to have figured it out.
His cutter and curveball have also been very good. So he’s good. That’s nothing new.
Other non-fastball primary pitches:
Changeups
Bailey Ober 34%
Edward Cabrera 35%
Sandy Alcantara 23%
Curveballs
Aaron Nola 30%
German Marquez 42%
Tyler Glasnow 30%
Slider
Bryce Elder 33%
Chris Sale 42%
Grant Holmes 39%
Kyle Bradish 37%
Max Meyer 28%
Zack Littell 26%
Sweeper
Erick Fedde 38%
Jesus Luzardo 35%
Luis Severino 25%
PJ Poulin 34%
Taj Bradley - 7.0IP 4H 2ER 2R 7K 2BB
114 pitches for Bradley! That was the most in a single game this season.
After two games with just eight total strikeouts, he punched out seven with two walks and on homer through seven innings. The velo was some of his best of the season:
There are still some less than great signs in the profile
38% Ball%
46% Strike%
11.7% SwStr%
33% GB%
That all turns into a bad 4.19 JA ERA, but he’s made it work so far and had a big 15.8% SwStr% last night to get things looking better. He’s still a risky guy to start with the fly ball rate and the lack of great command.
Tyler Glasnow - 5.67IP 3H 2ER 2R 9K 6BB
Yikes
That’s funny. Walks by start: 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, FIVE
He threw the curveball 35 times for a 49% Ball%.
The guy has a four-seamer with 97.7mph of effective velo (velo adjusted for release point so we can adjust for how quickly it’s getting on the hitter):
Only 19 starters (18 if you don’t count Grant Taylor) have effective velo on the FF over 97. But he’s not using that pitch that much! Why not, Glasnow? Throw the fastball!