Quick Looks: Martinez, Eovaldi, Webster and McCutchen

Carlos Martinez

Why I watched: He has been getting a little love and hate here at FanGraphs. Also, I wanted to see why the Cardinals are hesitant to make him a starter.

Game(s) Watched: 9/18/14 vs Pirates

Game Thoughts

• The 23-year-old righty works fast.

• He shows his emotions quite a bit on the mound. Once he got the sign for a change, he grimaced and then threw it in the dirt.

• He works in the vertical direction with his two-seamer and slurve getting just a bit of horizontal movement.

• He can throw strikes (control), but has no command to put his off-speed pitches where he wants to.

• He threw a 93-99 mph straight four-seam fastball. This was the only pitch he could command.

• Also, he had a two-seamer which was between 92-96 mph with some release-side break.

• His breaking pitch was 79-85 mph slurve. It is labeled a curve in some places and slider in others. It has a 1-7 plane with a nice quick late break when thrown correctly. The slower he threw it, the more movement it got. When it didn’t break, which happened regularly, it got crushed.

• This pitch is his bread and butter pitch against RHH with it generating whiffs 24% of the time and only 16% of the time vs LHH. Besides less swing-and-misses, LHH knock the snot out of it with a .595 SLG against it while RHH hit it for only a .192 SLG. The big difference can be seen in the location of the pitches.

When facing LHH, he puts his slider in the zone’s middle and it gets pounded around.

• His final pitch was a 87-90 mph straight change with some possible late downward break.

• One of his biggest issues was wasting his off-speed pitches in the dirt. It was tough to tell if it was his breaking pitch or change since it never got close to the plate. It was definitely slower.

• His reliance on just the slurve and fastball has made him basically a two pitch pitcher which teams seem to figure out. Here are his triple slash lines each time through the order as a starter:

Time through order: K/BB, OPS
1st: 3.2, .765
2nd: 1.5, .631
3rd: 1.0, 1.362

So far, he has shown no signs of being able to pitch deep into a game.

Final thoughts: Right now he is a fastball/slurve pitcher who can over power hitters early in the game, but struggles later especially against LHH. Being able to throw his change consistently and command his other pitches would help. Right now he is 4-5 inning starter or a good bullpen arm.

 

Bonus: Andrew McCutchen

I noticed Martinez pounded McCutchen up and him with fastballs. It was like Martinez had and plan and was going to stick to it. Here are the ISO and RAA heatmaps for McCutchen.

The pitch up and in is definitely a weak spot with him. Also the pitch low and away. Pitchers should look at attacking those two locations.

 

Allen Webster

Why I watched: He was traded again.

Game(s) Watched: 9/25/14 vs Rays

Game Thoughts

• The NESN game broadcast was horrible. They change the camera view every couple of seconds. It was like I was watching a John Woo movie.

• The nearly 25-year-old righty supposedly has two fastballs, but because of his lack of control, each individual pitch he threw acted differently. They were between 91-94 mph. A few had some sink. Others had some release side break.

• He had a 85 mph slider which was generally 12-6 with some occasional glove side break.

• His change flashed being a plus pitch. It was generally straight at 84-85 mph with a small amount of late sink.

• The last pitch he threw was a 76 mph curve with a late 12-to-6 break.

• A major theme with his pitches was a complete lack of consistency. This bad trait has led to a 10%+ walk rate in the majors.

• Many of pitches were just wasted as they were in the dirt or a foot outside. His pitches way of the strike zone stood at 7.6% with the league median at 5.4%.  On Monday, I looked at how his inability to throw strikes could affect his strikeout rate. I found some correlation, but no enough to really matter.

• With every pitch breaking down, he has no pitch to throw off left-handed hitters. Also, he just doesn’t even attack them. This fear of LHH can be seen with his career -2.3 K-BB% vs LHH and a 9.7% K-BB% vs RHH

Final thoughts: Webster’s ability to throw strikes is currently his greatest weakness. He needs to correct this issue before he can be considered useable in any format. He may need to change the pitcher he currently is to throw strikes, so he should be re-evaluated once he finds the strike zone.

 

Nathan Eovaldi

Why I watched: Traded from Marlins to Yankees

Game(s) Watched: 9/27/14 vs Nationals

Game Thoughts

• The 24-year-old righty seemed to push the ball from a low release point.

• He threw two fastballs. His four-seamer was 95-97 mph and straight. Sometimes it had both glove and release side break. His two-seamer was at 95 mph with a nice downward break.

• His slider was between 89-90 mph with a 3-9/2-10 break. It was inconsistent and missed badly at times.

• His change was at 89-90 mph with some late sink. Not a bad pitch. He should throw it more (3% in 2014). Like his slider, it was inconsistent. His issues may be with one pitch (slider or change) since they both are the same speed. It was tough to tell them apart.

• The final pitch was a plus 74-79 12-6 curve with a loopy motion.

• His motion makes it tougher for righties to pick up his pitches and hit them. This split can be seen with a career 3.48 FIP and .287 BABIP vs RHH and 3.91 FIP and .329 BABIP vs LHH.

Final thoughts: I can see why people love him. High 90’s fastball. Two good breaking pitches. From this start, I see the potential, but also the inconsistency landmine. I would like to see if the Yankees try to change him. I have no problems taking a chance on him, but I need to be ready for the ups and downs.