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Alex Wells 2021

Frobby

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Posted by Tony-OH,

It's only been two appearances so you have to take his statscast information with a grain of salt, but the early indications are not very good.  Let's mainly look at the stuff vs the results (which has shown him to be incredibly lucky so far). Fastball is a low spin rate 89 MPH pitch with below average vertical (-6% below MLB average) but above average horizontal movement (25% below MLB average). It's gotten just 5.3% whiff rate. Curveball is a slow (73.8MPH) pitch that gets about

Wells scouting report

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ArtVanDelay Hangout Grand Counsel

ArtVanDelay

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8 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Haven't seen him, but lolllllllzzzz at people thinking an 88 mph fastball is going to play up in the MLB.  

Maybe it can for certain guys but I'm not betting on them.  

 

Isn’t the Cubs rotation full of soft-tossers?  They’re ranked 30th in fWAR. 

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Frobby
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Allowed 2 runs in 2.2 innings yesterday, and got the win. On the one hand, I could say that the runs he allowed were a bit unlucky.   With one out in the 5th, Alvarez hit a grounder to the SS pos

Tony-OH
Tony-OH

It's only been two appearances so you have to take his statscast information with a grain of salt, but the early indications are not very good.  Let's mainly look at the stuff vs the results (whi

Tony-OH
Tony-OH

I think the difference is Valdez had one trick pitch while Wells will rely on commanding four pitches, changing speeds, and working in all quadrants of the strike zone.  It will be interesting to

Frobby Hangout Grand Counsel

Frobby

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21 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Haven't seen him, but lolllllllzzzz at people thinking an 88 mph fastball is going to play up in the MLB.  

Maybe it can for certain guys but I'm not betting on them.  

 

Zach Davies and Ryan Yarbrough come to mind.  I’ve always figured Wells as a Davies comp, but at least at first look his secondaries are not as good.   Among other things, Zach has a bigger velocity differential between his fastball and his change (9 mph).

But I definitely don’t think we’ve seen the best version of Wells yet, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.  

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Moose Milligan Hangout Grand Counsel

Moose Milligan

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44 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Zach Davies and Ryan Yarbrough come to mind.  I’ve always figured Wells as a Davies comp, but at least at first look his secondaries are not as good.   Among other things, Zach has a bigger velocity differential between his fastball and his change (9 mph).

But I definitely don’t think we’ve seen the best version of Wells yet, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.  

IMO, if the fastball is in that range the secondaries have to be really good to absolutely outstanding.

I believe the things that matter the most are command (being able to spot the ball where you want it, when you want it), movement and then finally velocity.  

That said, it seems like velocity reigns supreme today, everyone wants power arms.  But we've seen it with Tanner Scott, it doesn't really matter what the velocity is if you can't locate it.  However, I think teams would rather work with guys that have high velocity instead of a soft tosser if everything else is equal.

Whatever, I'm rambling.  I'd love to have guys that have to strain to hit 90 mph if they can pinpoint it, change speeds, have great movement and shape to their secondaries.  But the guys that the Orioles are bringing up don't seem to have it.

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Tony-OH Hangout Grand Counsel

Tony-OH

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40 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Could be a Cesar Valdez type who succeeds for a while until batters have seen him a few times.   I’ve always liked him so I’ll hope for better than that.  

I think the difference is Valdez had one trick pitch while Wells will rely on commanding four pitches, changing speeds, and working in all quadrants of the strike zone. 

It will be interesting to see if his stuff works because it's really an unknown. Just can't find anyone left-handed with his exact repertoire. 

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Frobby Hangout Grand Counsel

Frobby

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Nice job by Wells in his first major league start, going 5.2 innings and allowing 3 runs, 5 hits, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.   A few quotes:

“Really settled in nicely,” manager Brandon Hyde said on his Zoom call. “Thought he threw well to their left-handers really after that second inning, thought he had his slider going, pitched in with his fastball to lefties and righties and really competed into the sixth inning. So, gave us a chance to win.

“He really competed, I think the guy competes. He did that in Houston, too. He doesn’t have the fastball that’s going to blow by people or the plus-plus stuff, but he does compete with what he has and did a nice job commanding the baseball after the second inning.” 

* * * 

“Third inning onwards I felt a lot better and instead of trying to nibble around the plate I just went out there and I attacked the zone like I normally do and haven’t been doing lately,” Wells said. “Knowing that my stuff can play here gives me confidence going into my next appearance.”

There’s a few other quotes from Wells in this article: 

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2021/07/alexander-wells-solid-in-debut-rays-with-walk-off-win.html

Wells is a guy I’ve always liked.   Encouraging outing from him today and I hope he’ll stay in the rotation.  
 

 

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SteveA Hangout Grand Counsel

SteveA

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5 minutes ago, interloper said:

Another guy who looks confident when he pitches, which I'm beginning to feel like is the only thing separating some of these young pitchers at times. Real nice start for him. 

Trying to think back to last September.   Did Kremer look confident when he was giving up 8 hits and 3 runs in 16 innings in his first 3 starts?

I'll bet he did.  

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HowAboutThat Hangout Grand Counsel

HowAboutThat

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I was unable to watch the game, although I listened to the Tampa radio guys so as to avoid more of the Newman experience, but I thought Wells did surprisingly well.

The question is whether he’s going to get another start over Akin?

Could we pair Lopez and Akin and put Wells into the rotation for now?

Make room by dumping Anderson, whose presents here is inexplicable anyway.

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interloper Hangout Grand Counsel

interloper

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3 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Trying to think back to last September.   Did Kremer look confident when he was giving up 8 hits and 3 runs in 16 innings in his first 3 starts?

I'll bet he did.  

I'm mostly joking and saying this out of frustration. But I mean, maybe he did! 

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Frobby Hangout Grand Counsel

Frobby

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18 minutes ago, Philip said:

I was unable to watch the game, although I listened to the Tampa radio guys so as to avoid more of the Newman experience, but I thought Wells did surprisingly well.

The question is whether he’s going to get another start over Akin?

Could we pair Lopez and Akin and put Wells into the rotation for now?

Make room by dumping Anderson, whose presents here is inexplicable anyway.

I’d be very surprised if Wells doesn’t get another start.    

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interloper Hangout Grand Counsel

interloper

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1 minute ago, Frobby said:

I’d be very surprised if Wells doesn’t get another start.    

Means
Wells
Lopez
Watkins
Akins
Harvey

Why don't they just go to a 6-man rotation? It would help manage everyone's innings, give guys like Harvey and Means more rest. 

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HowAboutThat Hangout Grand Counsel

HowAboutThat

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41 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’d be very surprised if Wells doesn’t get another start.    

Me too, but the Orioles are made a lot of incredibly surprising moves this season, which could also be described as “head shakers”
 

When Akin ready to return it would not surprise me a bit if Wells Is sent down to make room, and Anderson sacrifices a chicken in gratitude. I do think Wells will get more starts this season But I will wager he goes down between now and OctoberBut I will wager he goes down between now and October

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Big Mac Veteran All-Star

Big Mac

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40 minutes ago, interloper said:

Means
Wells
Lopez
Watkins
Akins
Harvey

Why don't they just go to a 6-man rotation? It would help manage everyone's innings, give guys like Harvey and Means more rest. 

I know a great way to give Matt Harvey more rest...

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