Originally Posted by
Enscheff
First, we need to realize a couple things about the results Touki has been getting...
A 33.3% HR/FB rate as absurdly high, and is impossible to remain that bad. Literally a third of the balls in the air vs Touki have left the park, and that's insane.
A 50.2% LOB rate is almost equally as unsustainable. A rate around 70% is normal, and isn't something pitchers tend to be able to control.
Having said that, it's not like Touki is pitching well by any means. A BB/9 of 6 isn't going to work, period.
Why can't Braves pitches throw strikes? No idea, but it does seem to be a consistent theme with most of the young arms with impact potential lately. Is it a development problem? Are we just crying because they are Braves pitchers, and all teams have similar issues? Again, no idea, but when I see a guy like Touki and Wright struggling to control 5 pitches, I can only wonder, "why in the world is he trying to execute 5 pitches rather than his 3 best pitches?". Can't folks see Anderson succeed by executing 3 good pitches, and realize "hey, I don't need a SL and a CU to succeed if I execute the SI, CU and Split"?
Further, why can't the Braves quickly identify which of those 3 pitches are the best? Touki's FA with its 7" of rise is clearly too flat to be useful, so why is he using it 7x as often as the SI with plus or better sink and arm side run? He threw the SI much more often in 2018, so did someone suggest he switch to the inferior fastball variant in a misguided attempt to improve his control?
Wright is a talented arm who is the same guy he was in college, and Touki even more talented (nearly Fried-level talented). There is no reason a professional coaching staff shouldn't be able to turn that talent into production. I suspect someone will, and I hope it's the Braves.