Tyler Anderson Continues to Deal, Especially at Home

Corinne Landrey just wrote about Tyler Anderson last week, outlining some loose comparisons between he and Clayton Kershaw. I commend you to read that, but also this. By the way, she doesn’t really think he’s Kershaw, just wanted to point out some interesting similarities. I’m always fascinated when a pitcher finds success at Coors Field so I wanted to see how he was doing it.

He only has 11 major league starts, but eight of them have already been at home. Small sample size caveats are in full effect, of course. The first I noticed about Anderson is that he seems to have different paths to success for home and road. He doesn’t necessarily change how he pitches batters home and road, but the resultant statistical profiles are interesting. He has taken these paths to virtually the same ERA in (3.04) and outside of Coors (3.06).

HOME

In Coors, Anderson leans on his fastball-changeup combo using them a combined 74% of the time. His fastball comes in around 90-92, about average for a lefty, but his 81 MPH changeup helps the heater play up a bit while also being really good, too. He throws it to righties and lefties alike. Righties get it 33% of the time, but lefties get a steady diet as well at 26%.

He works down and outside to lefties. He puts 55% of his pitches in the lower third and 42% on the outer third against same-handed batters. He will work the fastball in a bit with 38% of them on the inner third, but the changeup and slider work away-away-away, which makes sense given the pitches. He really stays away from the upper third of the zone again lefties with just 14% of his pitches up there.

That’s probably the biggest difference between his approach against righties. They see double the number of pitches in the upper third at 28%. He works inside more against them, too, which also makes sense given his pitch mix. It’s hard to work an opposite-handed slider away, but he also runs the fastball in there at a 52% clip.

He doesn’t have a defined plan of attack for righties, especially compared to the road (which we’ll get to), but he’s finding success. Just because there isn’t a set pattern doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a plan. Hell, it should probably be considered a plus because righties don’t have a roadmap going up to the dish.

The change doesn’t exactly dominate right-handers with a .668 OPS, but the 32% K and 2% BB rates are both strong. It’s only been 11 PA, but it smashes lefties (.182 OPS, 46% K). The fastball allowing a .717 OPS with a 16% strikeout rate works in Coors for sure, but it’s sharply split between righties and lefties. Righties only have a .606 OPS with a 23% strikeout rate, but lefties club it to the tune of .913 OPS with just a 3% strikeout rate.

The slider has allowed an .890 OPS thanks in part to a .390 BABIP, but it’s also been his best groundball pitch at home with a 61% rate. The fastball is at 55% and the changeup a little below that at 49%. This is obviously a wise strategy in Coors, keep the ball down and away from the heart of the plate as much as you can. You may run into some BABIP issues, but it’s better than running into severe extra-base issues.

AWAY

He’s only made three starts away from Coors, but he’s been good in all three. In fact, he’s a third of an inning shy of three quality starts . On the road, Anderson drops down to 67% reliance on the fastball-changeup with most of the difference going into his slider at 30% (compared to 25% at home). He even features a 3% curveball, though it has ended all of 2 PA so it’s not really relevant even with 7% usage against lefties. The curve is the only real difference between lefty/righty pitch mix on the road. Lefties get 40% heat, 31% slider, 22% changeups, and 7% curves while righties are at 40%-30%-29%-1%.

Lefties and righties don’t get a vastly different vertical approach with the key focus being down in the zone just as it is at home: lefties at 14%/25%/61% (up-mid-low); righties at 14%/33%/53%.  In fact, his approach to lefties is very similar: down and out with even more pitches on the outer third (52%) than at home while sometimes working the heater in. Righties, however, get mirrored looks at the fastball and changeup. The fastball is on the inner half 63% of the time, while the changeup is only at 39%. The slider is about split in half at 52% on the inner half.

At home, he seems to realize he needs to miss more bats. He has a .724 composite OPS, but also a 22% strikeout rate. He also refuses to give in as much with a 6%, compared to 3% on the road. He has a .633 OPS on the road despite just a 16% strikeout rate. Unsurprisingly, he has a sharp BABIP split home and road. He’s at .333 in Coors, but just .255 on the road. The heavy groundball rate seems to generate better results in his abbreviated road work.

Anderson has a distinct platoon split on the road so far. Lefties have a meager .178 OPS in 23 PA while righties are up at .860 in 44 PA. The results seem to fall on each end of the luck spectrum, though the skills also support a wide split. He has a 35% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate against lefties, along with a meager-and-impossible-to-sustain .077 BABIP. Righties haven’t walked, but they’re only striking out 7% of the time with a .316 BABIP. He does an even better job generating groundballs on the road at 63% and he’s been tough to square up with just a 15% line drive rate.

It’s only three starts so we have to be careful believing this is a set approach for Anderson on the road. Honestly, we can’t even be sure his home approach is something he’s set on after eight starts, but at least we have a bit more to go off of right now.

Add it all up and I remain intrigued. He certainly hasn’t figured out Coors and I trust the gaudy road work of teammate Tyler Chatwood more, but the former first round pick from 2011 is back on track after being knocked track a bit by a stress fracture in his elbow that cost him all of 2015.