Post by qwik3457bb on Apr 2, 2024 20:26:52 GMT -5
Zac Gallen for the D'backs tonight. When healthy, he's pitched very well (with the arguable exception of 2021) for the D'backs ever since they got him from the Marliins in the trade in which the Marlins got Jazz Chisholm, Jr. In both 2022 and 2023 he finished top 5 in the NL Cy Young award voting. Last year, he even got some down-ballot MVP support. 17-9 (2nd in wins), 3.47 ERA, 210 innings (2nd in the NL), 188 hits, 87 runs, 81 earned, 22 HR, 47 BB, 220 K's (3rd in K's). He was 2-3 in 6 postseason starts, pitching well in 3 of them, so-so in 1, and poorly in 2.
Gallen is a 5-pitch righty. Last year's repertoire: FB at 94 about 53% of the time, curve 82-3 about 23% of the time, change at about 87, 14% of the time, cutter at 89-90, about 12% of the time, and a rare slider at about 86, about once a start. In his first start this season, his FB was down 2 mph, and some of the fantasy baseball mavens were clucking about that. The consensus is that they're worried that throwing over 240 innings last year took something out of his arm, but in my opinion, it's too early to draw conclusions like that based on one start in March. Many starters build arm strength and velocity early in the year until they get to a dead-arm period, when it drops, and then recovers. Maybe he's already working through the dead-arm period.
Against the Yankees, he's made just one start in his career, a recent one. When the D'backs came to the Stadium last September, he shut them down for 6 innings on 3 hits, 2 BB, with 8 K's, allowing no runs in a 7-1 win.
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Nestor Cortes making his 2nd start this year. He gave the Astros 4 runs in 5 innings, but all of them in the first two innings. Then he held the line, allowing the team to rally, take him off the hook and earned the no-decision with his solid work in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings.
In that start, he threw just 3 pitches, the FB 55% at 91.7 (same average velo as both 2021 and 2022, almost exactly), the cutter 29% of the time at 86 (down about 1 mph from 2021 and 2022) and the slider 16% of the time at about 78, (1 mph higher than 2021 and 22). What we didn't see is his change, which he threw 3-4% of the time in 2021-22. He didn't throw a single change to the Astros.
He's faced the D'backs just once, a relief appearance in the 9th inning of a game in 2019. He threw just two pitches, and Tim Locastro, of all people, hit it for a solo HR leading off the 9th that made it 7-4 Yanks. Chapman came in, gave up another run, but held on for the save, 7-5.
Gallen is a 5-pitch righty. Last year's repertoire: FB at 94 about 53% of the time, curve 82-3 about 23% of the time, change at about 87, 14% of the time, cutter at 89-90, about 12% of the time, and a rare slider at about 86, about once a start. In his first start this season, his FB was down 2 mph, and some of the fantasy baseball mavens were clucking about that. The consensus is that they're worried that throwing over 240 innings last year took something out of his arm, but in my opinion, it's too early to draw conclusions like that based on one start in March. Many starters build arm strength and velocity early in the year until they get to a dead-arm period, when it drops, and then recovers. Maybe he's already working through the dead-arm period.
Against the Yankees, he's made just one start in his career, a recent one. When the D'backs came to the Stadium last September, he shut them down for 6 innings on 3 hits, 2 BB, with 8 K's, allowing no runs in a 7-1 win.
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Nestor Cortes making his 2nd start this year. He gave the Astros 4 runs in 5 innings, but all of them in the first two innings. Then he held the line, allowing the team to rally, take him off the hook and earned the no-decision with his solid work in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings.
In that start, he threw just 3 pitches, the FB 55% at 91.7 (same average velo as both 2021 and 2022, almost exactly), the cutter 29% of the time at 86 (down about 1 mph from 2021 and 2022) and the slider 16% of the time at about 78, (1 mph higher than 2021 and 22). What we didn't see is his change, which he threw 3-4% of the time in 2021-22. He didn't throw a single change to the Astros.
He's faced the D'backs just once, a relief appearance in the 9th inning of a game in 2019. He threw just two pitches, and Tim Locastro, of all people, hit it for a solo HR leading off the 9th that made it 7-4 Yanks. Chapman came in, gave up another run, but held on for the save, 7-5.