From the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson:
Marlins pitcher Javier Vazquez's fastball is at the lowest average velocity in his career (88.2 mph, down from 91.1 two years ago, according to fangraphs.com). But one scout said the bigger issue is "his breaking ball is flat. There's no life." When batters swing at his pitches out of the strike zone, they are making contact 85.9 percent of the time this season, compared with 51.2 two years ago. Overall, Vasquez is getting swings and misses just 9.5 percent of all pitches swung at, compared with 26.7 two years ago.
I've given up on Vazquez miraculously turning things around (as I'm sure the rest of you already have). Unfortunately, there's no clear replacement waiting in the wings in the farm system.
Sean West and Alex Sanabia are injured, and Elih Villanueva, another possible replacement, is struggling in Triple-A (with a 3.33 BB/9 and 5.33 FIP). We may be stuck with Vazquez for awhile.
On a lighter note, remember when newspaper writers thought it was preposterous to look at advanced statistics? Glad that's over.
1 comments:
While I wouldn't necessarily call it "advanced statistics," (it's actually what happened) I'm glad someone is looking at the stats. Good work by Jackson
Post a Comment