Keegan Akin 2021

[Il BuonO]

16 minutes ago, SteveA said:

By far the best outing of his major league career.   Nothing even close.

9 up 9 down on 20 pitches his last 3 innings, unreal.   Of course I think the Angels were already mentally on the plane back to Disneyland, their spirits were broken in the 97 degree heat after losing last night.   (Although the 5th inning, the first inning where they went down quickly, the score was 1-1).

And not only was one of the 3 hits a bunt, wasn't one a fly ball that DJ Stewart lost in the sun?   I followed the game on Gameday so I don't know that for sure, but that's how it was described to me in the game thread.   So the only "clean" hit was the Ohtani HR.   And one of the walks was to Ohtani too, I have no problem walking him every time up.   He also hit a batter.

Not sure about the hit by Adell to Stewart, but after the 2nd the bunt hit in the 5th was the only one allowed. So, definitely not a lot of hard contact.

[Aristotelian]

Then again, Mike Wright had one terrific start against the Angels if I recall. 

[O's84]

I especially liked that it was 1-1 going to the 5th (not a blow out yet) and Akin kept on rolling with a tight margin score wise.

Now of course it's just 1 start, so he has a lot to prove.  But it is good enough for now to savor this win.

[Ruzious]

Hey, he can't change the past or erase it, so relish the present and work on improving the future.  Congrats Keegan Akin!

[Frobby]

So what was working for Akin today?   I didn’t see the game, but obviously something clicked in a way that it hasn’t all season.  

I’d get a lot more optimistic about 2022 if Akin could put together a strong final 6-7 outings and get back into the picture.
 

[rm5678]

4 hours ago, SteveA said:

 

And not only was one of the 3 hits a bunt, wasn't one a fly ball that DJ Stewart lost in the sun?   I followed the game on Gameday so I don't know that for sure, but that's how it was described to me in the game thread.   

Yes, Stewart lost it in the sun. I thought he should have been charged with an error, but he wasn't.

[Il BuonO]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

So what was working for Akin today?   I didn’t see the game, but obviously something clicked in a way that it hasn’t all season.  

I’d get a lot more optimistic about 2022 if Akin could put together a strong final 6-7 outings and get back into the picture.
 

Biggest improvement I saw was with FB command. Majority of his strike outs were located inner third. Better CH, too, which he kept down. A lot of weak contact, pop ups. Only ball I can remember being squared up was the Ohtani HR.

[byrdz]

Yep fastball command was much improved and he got a few up into the mid-90’s if I recall correctly. 

[InsideCoroner]

Excellent outing by Akin. It looked bad (or familiar) after giving up a leadoff homer to Ohtani, but he really found his groove. I can’t believe that was his first win of the year.

(And hey, two scoreless frames from Lopez out of the pen is nice to see as well…)

[Frobby]

Akin talks with David Laurila about his changeup:

“It was one of the first pitches I ever learned — I was probably 12 years old — and honestly, it wasn’t a very good pitch for me all the way through high school and college. But then I really worked on it in the offseason going into 2019. That was when I told myself, ‘You know, I need to make this into kind of a go-to pitch for whenever I need it.’ So every day, I played catch with that grip. I was throwing it 90 feet, 120 feet, trying to have it coming out feeling like a fastball. A changeup is a feel pitch, so you need to become comfortable with it.

“The grip has been the same since the offseason of 2018. I tinkered with it and tried different things here and there, found one that worked for me, and I’ve rolled with it ever since. It’s kind of a circle change, I guess is the best way to put it. I learned it as a typical circle, with all five fingers on the ball. I have bigger hands, so I used to cut it a lot — it would turn into a cut changeup — and I didn’t want that, so I started moving it out further and further toward the end of my hand. It’s more based off my ring finger, my pinky finger and my middle finger, and I’m trying to throw as hard as I can. I’m throwing it like a fastball and letting the grip do the work.

 

“I guess I could say that three and a half fingers are on the ball, with the thumb not involved. The index finger is kind of tucked under; it sits on that middle knuckle, kind of more as a guidance thing. So the thumb and the index finger are kind of out of the picture and the middle finger is dominant. And I pronate it a lot. I let it almost shoot out of the side of my hand. That’s kind of the mindset. I let it roll off that middle finger and really get the pronation and rollover, and the extension out front.

“I get depth on it, but it’s more of an arm-side run type of pitch. It’s low-spin, low-velo. I try to keep it 10–12 [mph] off my fastball if possible, but I also try not to be too concerned with trying to kill the velo, because that’s when you start to slow your motion down. You want to sell it as much as possible. Basically, I throw it like a fastball and essentially let the grip do the work.”

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/keegan-akin-kolby-allard-and-jharel-cotton-on-learning-and-developing-their-changeups/

[Moose Milligan]

A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile.  

A positive start for him.  I have my doubts that he can do it again in the next one.  I'd love to be wrong, though.  

[bobmc]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile.  

A positive start for him.  I have my doubts that he can do it again in the next one.  I'd love to be wrong, though.  

Say what?  Pretty positive review from MM!  Pitching from the stretch, commanding the FB and armed (pun intended) with a devastating CH.  

What's not to love?  

[Sports Guy]

His FIP is almost 2.5 runs better than his actual ERA.

BABIP is high.  

 

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

His FIP is almost 2.5 runs better than his actual ERA.

BABIP is high.  

 

His xERA (based on batted ball data and I think much better than FIP) also has him at 5.23, about two runs lower than his actual ERA.   Still, that xERA is in the 18th percentile and most of the other data points gave him well below average.   So, you certainly can’t say he’s been good.   Hopefully, he found something this outing that he can use to improve his future results, like the ability to spot his fastball on the inside corner and willingness to go there.   

[Sports Guy]

11 minutes ago, Frobby said:

His xERA (based on batted ball data and I think much better than FIP) also has him at 5.23, about two runs lower than his actual ERA.   Still, that xERA is in the 18th percentile and most of the other data points gave him well below average.   So, you certainly can’t say he’s been good.   Hopefully, he found something this outing that he can use to improve his future results, like the ability to spot his fastball on the inside corner and willingness to go there.   

No, I would agree that he hasn’t been “good”.  But an ERA of just over 5 looks way better.  I’m not sure where it stands now but I believe the average ERA for a 5th starter is around 5.25, or at least it has been in the recent past.

I think he can be better than that..say something in the 4.5-4.8 range.

Not talking about some world beater but if he can go 5 IP and give up 2-3 runs a game (on average), that is good enough for a back end guy.