Pitcher Spotlight: Sam Gaviglio Is Testing The Waters

When I see a pitcher consistently struggle, I can get a bit antsy. Pitchers often stick to one gameplan, believing that their current approach, despite its constant failures, is the only path that can lead them to success. It frustrates me when I see a pitcher refuse to go back to the drawing board and experiment for at least one game to see if something different could work.

Sam Gaviglio is having a rough season. Through 83.1 frames of sixteen starts and two relief appearances, Gavilgio holds a disfigured 4.86 ERA and 1.42 WHIP without much indicating that he deserves a whole lot better…except for last Saturday.

Watching Gaviglio’s outing against the Rays, I couldn’t help but get a little excited. Right in front of me was a man trying something new in the midst of peril and struggle. He recognized his current course wasn’t getting the job done and started experimenting. He was in his own world on the hill searching for something that worked.

I think he found something.

I’m sure you’re wondering exactly what 28-year-old Sam Gaviglio did to earn his impressive 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 6 Hits, 0 BBs, 7 Ks line, sparking the article you’re reading right now. This table should provide all the answers you need:

I could probably just stop the article here. Tada! Gaviglio is throwing more breaking balls with fewer fastballs and he did great. Pack it up, boys.

There’s a little more to talk about, though. This was the first start where Gaviglio threw fewer than 50% fastballs. His 50.5% breaking ball usage beat his previous high by more than six points. Sliders were thrown more than in any game in his career. His changeup rate was the third lowest of the year. His whiff rate was second highest, O-Contact was at its lowest.

You understand, Gaviglio changed his approach and it worked in one game. One game. There’s no reason to believe that he’ll both stick with the same gameplan tonight against the Royals and have success with it.

I like to think there is a reason, and for a pitcher that is so off the radar that he is owned in just 3% of fantasy leagues, it’s enough for me to dive a little deeper into it.

Let’s start with the basics in his fastball reduction. This is good a thing. Why? Because both his sinker and fastball have been absolutely terrible this season:

I don’t think you need to see a GIF of this one to understand that it is a hittable and poorly commanded pitch that doesn’t deserve to make up more than half of Gaviglio’s pitches, sinker or not. Not to mention, coming in at well under 90 mph means Gaviglio has a smaller margin for error with fastballs, and he lacks the ability to get away with it.

That’s one area to get excited about. Fewer worst pitches should equate to some success, though only if his secondary pitches are capable of a larger workload. Let’s take a look at the two breaking balls then, starting with the curveball:

I’m saving the best for last, clearly. These curveball numbers are far from enticing, though it does make me a little intrigued. As a pitch that was used about 10% of the time, seeing a 50% zone rate is great and obviously the .500 BAA is not going to stick – only 12 plate appearances ending with a curveball is far from sticky and that .545 BABIP will fall faster than my 6’4″ self trying to stand on a surfboard. Here’s a look at it:

This is Gaviglio’s secondary pitch to steal strikes early in counts and it should be effective if it keeps that role. It doesn’t need to be much more than that if there is another pitch Gaviglio can rely on to miss bats and be effective inside the zone. The good news is that he has that in his slider:

Shocking, isn’t it? Those are remarkable numbers for an offering belonging to Gaviglio, a pitcher whose team allegiance many struggle to remember. (It’s the Blue Jays.)

Entering Saturday’s game, Gaviglio had been throwing the pitch just 25.6% of the time through the year. This is far and away Gaviglio’s best pitch – arguably the reason he’s even in the majors – and he elected to throw other offerings 75% of the time instead. No wonder he was hinting at a 5.00 ERA and WHIP north of 1.40.

However, I think he started to realize his heavy fastball emphasis wasn’t paying the bills and elected to try something new. Gaviglio turned to the slide piece plenty more and it looked filthy>:

Gaviglio threw 37 sliders resulting in 12 swings-and-misses, good for a 32.4% SwStr rate en route to seven strikeouts. Again, this was one game. One night where it worked and maybe that doesn’t happen again. One night where he took a chance to experiment with his repertoire and things went better than expected.

Sam Gaviglio is facing the Royals in just about two hours after publication. It could go terribly wrong and it cost us absolutely nothing. However, if we see Gavilgio focus less on his heaters (if you can call 88mph “heat”) and shine the spotlight on the best weapon in his arsenal, we could be in for some sneaky value on a gaunt waiver wire.

Let’s hope his experiment can come to life.