Game 31, Mariners at Padres
Marco Gonzales vs. Chris Paddack, 6:10pm
Oops, little late here. The M’s open the second half in San Diego, facing one of the more electrifying new pitchers of 2019. Chris Paddack was nearly unhittable in the minors, putting up video game numbers across several levels thanks to a mid-90s fastball and a dominant change-up. He had issues with HRs, as he gets backspin on everything, but balanced it with very low walk rates and elite BABIP. This year, he’s had almost the exact same season, but with every trait turned up to eleven. The BABIP remains absurdly low. Walks? 6 in nearly 32 innings. Ahh, but the home runs…those are cranked up, too.
Paddack’s fastball was a real weapon last year, with a BABIP under .250 and plenty of swings and misses from batters looking for his change. He’s throwing it even harder this year, at 95, but it’s a very different pitch. Maybe to try and avoid the HR issues he had, he’s cut the vertical movement on it. He still throws it up in the zone to disguise his change, but he took something that was working, more or less, and made it worse. Batters are teeing off on his fastball, even as his change remains effective. I don’t get it. Maybe our former leader, Dave Cameron, is hard at work figuring this out.
1: Crawford, SS
2: Haggerty, LF
3: Lewis, CF
4: Seager, 3B
5: Nola, C
6: White, 1B
7: Fraley, RF
8: Lopes, DH
9: Gordon, 2B
SP: Marco Gonzales