Oh Danny Boy

We’ve been scrutinizing Danny Salazar since his return from the minors and after two dominating performances, he had his best start yet going 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 3...

We've been scrutinizing Danny Salazar since his return from the minors and after two dominating performances, he had his best start yet going 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 3 BBs, 12 Ks against the Yankees. As all of them are, Eno Saris wrote a great article about Salazar's return to the bigs, considering that Salazar's decision to throw more Four-Seamers and dial back the Changeup a little bit is helping him get through games. Well he certainly continued dominating in this one, so I went into the heatmaps to see if it was consistent with what Eno was discussing, and yeah, Four-Seamers were up-and-armside, Changeups were low or out of the zone and Sliders danced in and out. Much different location that the Four-Seamers he threw earlier in the year. Alright, here's my thinking. This is clearly Salazar's ceiling, no question about it. It's also three starts of it, but it's a beautiful place he's in. I can be convinced that it details a solid 8 weeks ahead for him, but I can also be convinced that it's a small sample size and Salazar isn't so far removed from being a ratio destroyer. At the end of the day, it is a shift in approach and y'all know I treat that like the biggest indicator of believing success. Come Monday, I'll probably have Salazar around 30 or so, as his upside is clearly as high as they come. I don't imagine he hints at Top 15, though.

Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:

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Nick Pollack

Founder of Pitcher List. Creator of CSW, The List, and SP Roundup. Worked with MSG, FanGraphs, CBS Sports, and Washington Post. Former college pitcher, travel coach, pitching coach, and Brandeis alum. Wants every pitcher to be dope.

5 responses to “Oh Danny Boy”

  1. Anthony says:

    EJ looked really good yday.

  2. Managed to trade Ervin Santana for Castillo yesterday — pretty happy with that!

    • J.C. Mosier says:

      I was watching the Castillo start. He had trouble with location early on, then adjusted very nicely … and then Bryan Price attempted a bit of Careful, Icarus, sending him out for the seventh with 93 pitches. And then left him in after hitting a man with his 111th pitch.

  3. Mike says:

    Going to see how Matz does tonight, but if he gets blowed up, OK to drop for Reynaldo Lopez? Have Castillo & JorMont, too… Thanks, love the site!

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