Friday, June 29, 2012

Taking a look at Trevor Bauer and Andrew Cashner's Starts

Yesterday highly touted prospect Trevor Bauer made his major league debut. He was the number three pick in last year's draft and has been flying through the Arizona Diamondback's farm system ever since. He wasn't the only pitcher joining a rotation though. San Diego Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner also got the call to the majors yet nobody paid any attention to him. Dave Cameron took a look at both pitchers in this article yesterday. I was curious to see how both fared so let's take a look.



We'll start by looking at Trevor Bauer. Remember that this is one start so we may not get a lot of information, but it'll be interesting to look at nonetheless.






































BauerSelectionVelocityVerticalHorizontal
FF58.10%91.99.76-3.79
CU21.60%77.8-8.431.96
CH      14.9%82.17.14-5.05
FT5.40%90.38.26-4.32

We can see that he relied on his fastball a lot and for the most part there isn't a ton of movement. He used his curveball the second most but he had trouble keeping it down in the zone. He only threw it 16 times but it got put in play 4 times. Overall he had trouble locating that pitch in the strike zone. He used his change-up only 11 times and he was able to get the second highest Strike% with it. He did a better job locating that pitch than his curve. He only used his team seam fastball four times so we can't get much from that.



Like I said earlies, Bauer  had trouble with his curveball and will need to do a better job at keeping it down in the zone.



This is a prime example of Bauer's control issues. He was all over the plate last night and has been known for that in the minors. He's never walked less than 4 batters per nine innings and if he doesn't make adjustments that will continue. Over the long haul Bauer is just too good though. One doesn't simply 'learn' how to strike guys out and Bauer simply has that ability.

Andrew Cashner was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2008 and was traded to the San Diego Padres deal in the trade that sent first baseman Anthony Rizzo to the Cubs. He was drafted in 2008 and was used as a reliever during the 2010 season. He was typically a starter in the minors but the Padres primarily have used him out of the pen, but recently they demoted him so he could get stretched out and become a starter. Yesterday he made only his second start of the season and boy was it a good one.































CashnerSelectionVelocityVerticalHorizontal
FF64.40%97.610.72-1.73
SL12.90%85.8-1.074.33
CH22.80%87.56.23-4.56

You can see that Cashner primarily used his fastball last night and it averaged speeds of 97 mph. It doesn't have a ton of movement but batters were not very successful when it was thrown against them. His change-up ran in on righties and it was by far his most successful pitch, even though he only threw it 23 times. He was able to get strikes 78.3% of the time when he threw it. His slider was pretty nasty, it typically went down and in on lefties and down and away on righties. Batters whiffed 15.4% of the time when he threw the pitch.



Cashner also did a good job locating his pitches in the strike zone. Here's an image:



Overall Cashner did a good job locating his fastball. He had some problems with his slider down and away but batters still chased it. This start was definitely something that Cashner and the Padres can build on. He has the potential to be a really solid pitcher going forward.

Trevor Bauer is going to be really good but that doesn't mean he was the only new talent (Well Cashner is relatively new I guess) pitching last night. Bauer does have some things to work on in order to improve but he'll get there.

1 comment:

  1. [...] Taking a look at Trevor Bauer and Andrew Cashner’s Starts (saberanalysis.wordpress.com) Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. Published: July 3, 2012 Filed Under: Music Tags: Dutch : Elvis Presley : Fijnaart : Folk Music : Julio Iglesias : Kristin Bauer : Order of Orange-Nassau : Roald Smeets [...]

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