Didier Fuentes Stuff?

From Fangraphs on Sales injury impact regarding Fuentes spot start:
Both of our pitch-modeling systems went gaga over Fuentes’ debut, with PitchingBot scoring his fastball a 65 on the 20–80 scale and Stuff+ grading it at 117 on a scale where 100 is average.

Also got solid marks for command and Curve
 
There are 578 MLB pitchers who have thrown 10+ FA's this year.

His FA is 96.2 (#113 of 578) with 17.1" of rise (#168 of 578) and 8.9" of arm-side run (#213 of 578). That's above average in all facets, and is easily a plus or better pitch. We saw this pitch effective, especially when he was able to execute it up above the belt.

He threw 2 breaking balls:

Sweeper at 81.7 with 11.8" glove-side movement and 2.7" of drop.

Curve at 78.8 with 15.4" glove-side movement and 11.0" of drop.

I'm almost always against young pitchers trying to command multiple breaking balls. It's harder to focus on executing multiple pitches, and they tend to be very similar pitches. Didier's case is the same. He has a Curve that has more break on both planes than the Sweeper, and is only 3 mph slower.

Why in the world would he even bother with the inferior Sweeper? Why worry about throwing an inferior breaking pitch when he doesn't have an off-speed pitch such as a change or splitter? This is exactly how 2-pitch BP arms are created. I recommend scrapping the Sweeper and focusing on learning an off-speed pitch.

As of right now he has the floor of a high leverage BP arm, and if he can learn an off-speed pitch he can certainly be an impact SP.
 
So get him with Schwellenbach to learn an off speed pitch. With being so young I could see him being pretty nervous but the FA review was a good one.
 
FA isn't horrible. it got hit hard, but it moves alright.
His Curve is legit.

What I see is he needs something that is a harder breaking pitch or to improve the splitter. I think the delta on his pitch speed is too far. He is either throwing gas at 96 or a sweeper and curve at 81 or lower. Needs a slider or improved splitter keep hitters off the fastball.
 
If he had a Curve that was a downer, and a Sweeper that moved sideways, it would make sense to use 2 different breaking balls with different shapes. The problem is his Curve moves more on both planes than the Sweeper, so why does the Sweeper exist? To be 3 mph faster?

Refine the good breaking ball, which is clearly the Curve. Figure out how to use the off-speed pitch in a game, and refine it.

He is much more promising to me than AJSS was when he debuted.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
he only threw one.. it wasn't good. maybe he ditched that pitch in his last start because he didn't have the feel for it.. but if that is his splitter, then he needs to find another breaking pitch.
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Maybe. But according to Deester it’s a good pitch he didn’t show. Doesn’t mean he’s right but I trust his eyes. Perhaps another pitch got misclassified as a splitter on a misfire.
 
CyYoung31 said:
Maybe. But according to Deester it’s a good pitch he didn’t show. Doesn’t mean he’s right but I trust his eyes. Perhaps another pitch got misclassified as a splitter on a misfire.
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I wasn't bashing the splitter.. it was literally one instance of it, which is weird itself.

even an averagish splitter would play very well with his elite Curve and plus FA.
 
One of the best things about Schwelly is he competently throws almost every pitch that exists, so we can compare every pitcher to his arsenal.

MLB Avg Split: 86.5 mph, 11.3" arm-side, 3.2" rise
Schwelly's Split: 84.7 mph, 9.4" arm-side, 0.2" rise
Didier AAA Split: 89.3 mph, 8.8" arm-side, 4.8" rise

Schwelly's split is a bit slower than average, and is more of a downer than it is a fader compared to MLB average. Overall it's a Grade 50 pitch.

Didier's split (keep in mind he's thrown only 3 in AAA) is harder than average, and doesn't quite have the movement of MLB splits either in fade or drop. I would rate it as a clearly below average pitch (Grade 30-40). Perhaps the adjustment that needs to be made is to somehow tweak the grip/release to lower the velocity, lower the spin, and hopefully get more drop. He likely made the right choice not using it in games yet. I suspect the development of that pitch (or a change) will be the determining factor in him being a long term SP.
 
I was wondering if Didi was throwing a higher spin splitter maybe.. which would account for less movement, but later movement when combined with higher velo. But he is sitting right on MLB avg 1290.. So I think he just throws it too hard.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
I was wondering if Didi was throwing a higher spin splitter maybe.. which would account for less movement, but later movement when combined with higher velo. But he is sitting right on MLB avg 1290.. So I think he just throws it too hard.
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I often sit closer to scouts because it's cheap to go to games. I'm not the only one who thinks his splitter is good or going to be....That said I still maintain his splitter (while possibly being a developing pitch is a good pitch). I do think it can be the difference in him developing into a very good starter or backend guy. One way or the other, WHEN he throws it more than 3 times in a game...we will have a better view of it.
 
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