I'm sure there are plenty of questions about what we do now with Mike Clevinger following a brilliant 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 Hits, 2 BBs, 8 Ks outing against the Astros yesterday. This was a pretty start to watch. It was by far the most polished I've seen Clevinger thus far, keeping the ball in the lower half of the zone incredibly well. 14 Whiffs are solid as well, though I am a little surprised to see small dip in velocity from last season as he was hovering 91/92 instead of the 93.94 we saw last season. It's possible he pulled it back a little to touch up his command, I'm not sure. I will say though, it's a terribly small sample (just 17.1 innings), but he's allowing just 17.1% hard contact and that's all kinds of good. Okay Nick, but what do we do with him? He was only supposed to be here during Corey Kluber's DL stint, but if he's pitching like this, it makes it hard from them not to slot him in the rotation in Josh Tomlin's spot, who is sporting a 6.86 ERA and 1.43 WHIP thus far. I'd pick him up and see where this goes.
Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:
Urias or clevinger ROS? Knowing both could be sent down.
Perdomo, straily, JC Ramirez or folty ROS?
I think short term, Clevinger. 2nd half, Urias.
JC Ramirez.
Again, most of the Shark’s punchouts on fastballs and cutters. Another thing I noticed was that he is very close to matching his cutter and slider velocities with the latter having WAY more movement. It must be a nightmare trying to figure out whether that 89mph pitch is going to tail in a tiny bit or really dive in/away. Hope he keeps it up!