Keegan Akin 2022

[Frobby]

Wow, what a season debut from Akin.  31 pitches, 27 strikes over 3 scoreless innings and wasted no time doing it.  He looked like a man on a mission.   And that’s the kind of outing that can build his confidence.  Really happy with how he presented himself on the mound.   Nice to see after people were ragging on him this spring.   

[Moose Milligan]

I'll continue to rag on him when he regresses to his talent level.

[Il BuonO]

Looked a lot better than Lyles!

[Aristotelian]

Who was that guy? Does Keegan Akin have a twin brother who is a good pitcher?

[OriolesMagic83]

Is Akin going to piggyback Lyles or will he just be a multi inning reliever.  Was good to rest the rest of the bullpen.

[glenn__davis]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'll continue to rag on him when he regresses to his talent level.

Lol, death, taxes, and, Moose hating on Keegan Akin.

[Aristotelian]

1 hour ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Is Akin going to piggyback Lyles or will he just be a multi inning reliever.  Was good to rest the rest of the bullpen.

Lyles is supposed to be the innings guy so theoretically wouldn't need a piggy back. Will be interesting to see who comes in after Wells. Maybe Fry for an inning then Baumann? 

[interloper]

15 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'll continue to rag on him when he regresses to his talent level.

You know it's coming lol. But dang that was a nasty appearance. Weird!

[wildcard]

Maybe that is Akin's role on this team.  Multi inning reliever. He says he likes it.  

[Tony-OH]

Weird, it's almost like he was always made for a Arthur Rhodes like role?

Obviously it was a great performance by Akin in his season debut and yes I kid about his success in that role since its a role I've been saying would be his best since he was in Bowie. Hey, but what do I know, I'm just some older guy with a website.

I looked into Akin's numbers to see what was different from last year and of course this is one outing, but there were some difference. 

The fastball averaged 93.1 1.1 MPH faster than last year but more importantly it did not sink with gravity as much losing 1.6 inches of sink from last year. That contributed to the crazy good 63% whiff rate on the 8 swings against his fastball. Here they are in action:
https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/akin-4-seamer-2022-debut

He also appeared to change the movement of his changeup losing 5 inches of vertical drop for added velocity (3 MPH) and horizontal movement (3 inches more). Here's it in action.

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/keegan-akin-s-changeup-2022-debut

The curveball had 10 more inches of drop and he threw it about 1.7 MPH slower. He only threw two of them though. The slider was a about a MPH harder like his fastball and it was effective.

Obviously when you see a 4-pitch guy you think starter, but I really think he's better off in 3 inning or less stints. He also may be better off not knowing when he's going to pitch though I imagine he knew he was coming in after Lyles. 

So we did see an increase in stuff, but the question is, was it because he just had a good outing, did his stuff play up because he knew he only had a shorter stint or is he did he improve his pitches over the offseason?

It will be interesting to watch him in his next outing because his biggest issue has never been a lack of stuff, but lack of consistency from outing to outing, and sometimes inning to inning. 

[Frobby]

Nice analysis, Tony.  I’ll add the simplistic observation that he threw a ton of strikes and was consistently ahead in the count.   That always helps.  

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

Nice analysis, Tony.  I’ll add the simplistic observation that he threw a ton of strikes and was consistently ahead in the count.   That always helps.  

100% right. I was just trying to see if the velocity or movement was different, but yes, getting ahead and throwing strikes was a huge part of the success as well.

[24fps]

20 hours ago, Il BuonO said:

Looked a lot better than Lyles!

TBF so did I throwing a plush mouse for my cat.  Only saw two of Akin's innings then had to do errands, but I thought he looked really good, but not impressed with Lyles yesterday.

[MarCakes21]

21 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Weird, it's almost like he was always made for a Arthur Rhodes like role?

Obviously it was a great performance by Akin in his season debut and yes I kid about his success in that role since its a role I've been saying would be his best since he was in Bowie. Hey, but what do I know, I'm just some older guy with a website.

I looked into Akin's numbers to see what was different from last year and of course this is one outing, but there were some difference. 

The fastball averaged 93.1 1.1 MPH faster than last year but more importantly it did not sink with gravity as much losing 1.6 inches of sink from last year. That contributed to the crazy good 63% whiff rate on the 8 swings against his fastball. Here they are in action:
https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/akin-4-seamer-2022-debut

He also appeared to change the movement of his changeup losing 5 inches of vertical drop for added velocity (3 MPH) and horizontal movement (3 inches more). Here's it in action.

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/keegan-akin-s-changeup-2022-debut

The curveball had 10 more inches of drop and he threw it about 1.7 MPH slower. He only threw two of them though. The slider was a about a MPH harder like his fastball and it was effective.

Obviously when you see a 4-pitch guy you think starter, but I really think he's better off in 3 inning or less stints. He also may be better off not knowing when he's going to pitch though I imagine he knew he was coming in after Lyles. 

So we did see an increase in stuff, but the question is, was it because he just had a good outing, did his stuff play up because he knew he only had a shorter stint or is he did he improve his pitches over the offseason?

It will be interesting to watch him in his next outing because his biggest issue has never been a lack of stuff, but lack of consistency from outing to outing, and sometimes inning to inning. 

@Tony-OH how much of this changes start to start?  Like ball, or air temperature, or humidity or just plain stuff?  Or is it pretty consistent across the season to go back and reference averages from last season compared to a single game this year?  I noticed you did the same with Lyles.

[Sports Guy]

21 hours ago, Frobby said:

Nice analysis, Tony.  I’ll add the simplistic observation that he threw a ton of strikes and was consistently ahead in the count.   That always helps.  

He also worked quickly.