Continuing our series from last week, let’s take a look at who showed up the most last week and who stands to gain this week.
Who’s Hot
Ethan Bagwell – 7IP 7H 3ER 0BB 5K
Building off of a great season debut, Ethan Bagwell continued his good work – this time against the Delmarva Shorebirds. That’s now a grand total of 1 walk through two starts (13 IP) for Ethan. He got ahead of batters consistently throughout the game as he landed a first pitch strike to 20 of the 27 hitters he faced. He was primarily a three pitch pitcher, featuring his four-seam (31% usage), two-seam (29% usage), sweeper (26% usage) while also executed a changeup (14% usage) low in the zone multiple times. While his velocity did fluctuate a bit during this start he still averaged 94 MPH on it, reaching 96.
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Didier Fuentes – 6IP 2H 0R 4BB 8K, 1 HBP
The strong early work for Fuentes continued in his second start of the season for the Stripers as he threw six shutout innings. Fuentes recorded 13 whiffs on 30 swings, and only really struggled out of the stretch where he picked up three of his four walks. The fastball velocity sat between 96-99 MPH and he continued to locate it at the top of the zone very well. He leveraged the fastball 65% of the time, while he used his slider 30% of the time. Fuentes did also throw his changeup, but it had a usage rate of 5% – a number that hopefully increases as he continues to work up his arm strength.
Tate Southisene – 5g, .263/.462/.632
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After a solid opening week of the season, Tate really took off last week showcasing power, speed, and defense in a very strong week for the first round pick. Tate got on base at a great .462 clip and had a homer and two triples, while walking five times, and striking out six. The exit velocity data from Tate has also been very strong as the homer he hit was clocked at 108 MPH. He’s done a good job of working counts and seeing pitches while not expanding and looking for his pitch. On the 8th, when he collected that homer, Tate saw a game high 34 pitches at the plate, and while he did have six plate appearances it is of note that he still led the team.
Honorable Mention: Colby Jones, Jim Jarvis, Eric Hartman, Owen Hackman
Who’s Not
Ben Gamel – 4G, .000/.125/.000
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Stripers outfielder Ben Gamel had a week to forget after going 0-for-14 over the last week with 8 strikeouts and just one walk. His time with the Braves, as a whole, hasn’t quite gone the way he had hoped as he’s hitting a paltry .105/.209/.211 through his first 10 games. Luckily for the Stripers his production hasn’t been needed as they have had other players step up. That said, for simple depth reasons, hopefully Gamel can get things going and become a legitimate threat in a good Stripers lineup.
Landon Beidelschies – 1G, 3IP 6H 5ER 3BB 3K
Landon’s first start of the season didn’t go as well as he had hoped. After doing well the first couple of innings, his second trip around the lineup card wasn’t as great. Landon was four-seam (40%), slider (38%), curveball (21%) for the most part and his stuff just didn’t look at crisp with his slider and curveball not really featuring sharp action. His fastball velocity was mainly upper-80s, hitting a max of 91 MPH. For someone with reliever risk because of his arsenal, the fact that he failed to really get through the lineup a second time shows that his overall path might be as a reliever. That said, still just one start made, thus not enough to really draw a conclusion.
Cade Kuehler – 1G, 3IP 4H 5ER 4BB 2K, 1 HBP
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It was a very rough start for Cade who simply hasn’t looked the same since his injury. He did induce 8 whiffs in his three innings, but the stuff really lacked. His fastball velocity peaked at 93 but sat more comfortably at 89. This resulted in Cade effectively pitching backwards and trying to get ahead with his slider, and splitter. Unfortunately for Cade, neither pitch was that strong and he ended up walking four and hitting one despite throwing just 62 pitches.
Honorable Mention: Cedric de Grandpre, Jacob Shafer, Kendy Richard
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