Shintaro Fujinami

[LA2]

10 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Fujinami in his brief stint here looks better coming to start a clean inning. Bringing him in the middle of an inning with runners on base makes me nervous and needs to be avoided come playoff time.

I think Fujinami has the arm to be that guy who can come with runners on 2B and 3B with one out, but not yet. Maybe the Orioles pitching lab can make him that guy before the season ends.

That Pitching Lab has proven to be very good indeed. And when one sees the similarity in pitch repertoire to Bautista's, it makes one even more hopeful. But given people's speculation that Fujinami is lacking in self-confidence, can it be done in the high-pressure circumstances of the August/Sept. races?

If the Orioles open up a wider margin between themselves and the Rays--either through continuing to dominate the opposition or a Rays collapse (Look at all the injuries to their starting rotation!)--I think so. Aside from the expertise and success of Chris Holt et al, Hyde seems good at encouraging players and giving them the proper opportunities (except for when a depleted or incapable bullpen forces him to play a bad hand).

[Tony-OH]

26 minutes ago, seak05 said:

When he comes in with runners already on, it’s been a disaster. When he comes in at the start of the inning it’s been great. Maybe to small a sample size to call it a pattern, but if I’m Hyde it’s something I’m paying attention to

He's a lot like Baker in this regard.

I've always wondered if it's a warm up thing. Typically, when a reliever has to warm up to come in mid-inning, they were warmed up very quickly vice having a much longer time to warm up when coming in to start a new inning. Some guys just take longer to warm up which is why not every starting pitcher can be converted to relief.

It's also why I believe once the organization has decided a guy is going to be used a reliever, he should be used as a reliever in AAA or even in AA so he can get used to these kinds of situations. Relief pitchers need to be able to pitch effectively after short warm ups, pitch often (sometimes on back to back games), and be able to recover quickly enough to pitch 3-4 times a week sometimes.

Back to Fuji. The good news is that's he's been good in 5 of last his 6 outings with the Orioles and hasn't given up an earned run since July 22nd.  So it appears to me that he's settling in a bit. The Toronto meltdown games is the only game where he allowed inherited runners to score with the Orioles, but there was only one other game where he was brought in with a runner on base and he stranded him. 

On the year, Fuji has allowed 41% of his inherited runners to score which is not good, but not Bryan Baker bad (52%"). BTW, Felix Bautista has not allowed an inherited run to score yet in 2023 (9-for-9 in stranding). Cano is tied for 10th bets in the league at 23.1% ( 6/26 ) and Coulombe is 13th at 23.7% ( 9/38).

 

[Frobby]

Fuji’s appearances so far:

1.0 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

0.2 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s

0.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K’s

2.0 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s

0.1 IP, 1 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB (2 HBP), 0 K’s

1.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s

Totals to date: 8.2 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 HBP, 11 K’s.

It’s pretty obvious that if he can throw strikes, he’ll be dominant, but he’s capable of getting himself in major trouble with poor control on a given day. I saw both of his clean outings in person and he was pretty much untouchable both times.  As I told my wife, you generally know within 3 pitches what kind of day it’s going to be.

[Baltimorecuse]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Fuji’s appearances so far:

1.0 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

0.2 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s

0.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K’s

2.0 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s

0.1 IP, 1 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB (2 HBP), 0 K’s

1.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s

Totals to date: 8.2 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 HBP, 11 K’s.

It’s pretty obvious that if he can throw strikes, he’ll be dominant, but he’s capable of getting himself in major trouble with poor control on a given day. I saw both of his clean outings in person and he was pretty much untouchable both times.  As I told my wife, you generally know within 3 pitches what kind of day it’s going to be.

I've come to believe that for every major league pitcher it's about consistency.  If they didn't have "stuff" they wouldn't be in the bigs.  But how consistently they control the "stuff" is the big difference maker.  One exception is that when you throw 97% you can get away with more bad pitches.  

[tntoriole]

13 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Fuji’s appearances so far:

1.0 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

0.2 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s

0.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K’s

2.0 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s

0.1 IP, 1 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB (2 HBP), 0 K’s

1.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s

Totals to date: 8.2 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 HBP, 11 K’s.

It’s pretty obvious that if he can throw strikes, he’ll be dominant, but he’s capable of getting himself in major trouble with poor control on a given day. I saw both of his clean outings in person and he was pretty much untouchable both times.  As I told my wife, you generally know within 3 pitches what kind of day it’s going to be.

Would warming up enable Hyde to know which Fuji ?  As it is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde thing? (See how I did that? Lol ) 

[Fiver6565]

I don’t have anything meaningful to add to this, just wanted to contribute to a thread other than the Kevin Brown one. Not anyone’s fault but it’s so tiresome that’s the topic around here rather than what’s happening on the field for a best in baseball type team. Hopefully since games are about to start back up tonight we can move on but we’re unfortunately probably at least a few days away from that. 

[Fiver6565]

1 minute ago, tntoriole said:

Would warming up enable Hyde to know which Fuji ?  As it is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde thing? (See how I did that? Lol ) 

I would think that if you could tell when a reliever is going to be bad during warmups, there’d be a lot less bad reliever outings for all teams. 

[e16bball]

1 hour ago, tntoriole said:

Would warming up enable Hyde to know which Fuji ?  As it is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde thing? (See how I did that? Lol ) 

I was just working up a post where I referred to him as Dr. Fuji and Mr. Nami, so obviously we’re on the right track here…

It’s evident when you just look at the inherited runner history. He’s had 12 appearances where he came on with runners on base, and he’s stranded all of them in 8 of those 12. 

It’s those other 4 games where all the damage came. Twice he came on with the bases loaded and allowed all 3 to score — this might be the situation to avoid, as he’s 0/6 in stranding runners when he enters with the bases loaded. The first time, he took over for A’s reliever Dick Lovelady (technically, he goes by “Richard,” for reasons that are at least somewhat understandable) and promptly walked McCutchen and Reynolds to force in two runs for the Pirates (followed by a sac fly). The second time, he pitched a bit better: 2-run single to Stanton, followed by Ks of Bader and Donaldson. But then Rizzo blooped a single to score the 3rd runner.

The two other trouble outings were the mess we saw against TOR and his second ever relief appearance. In that one, he came on with a runner on 2nd and actually performed admirably. The runner was India, and he scored after stealing 3rd and an infield hit — but Fuji pitched well in that inning. The next inning was a trainwreck, though. Walk, walk, walk, wild pitch, run-scoring single. But that was a clean inning.

 

In sum, it’s pretty clear that some days he just doesn’t have it (or quickly loses it). I think you almost need to plan for it — whether that means having another reliever warming up as soon as he goes in or perhaps inserting him with two outs in an inning, so he only needs to get one to escape if he’s floundering. He’s an inferno when he’s got it going, but his meltdowns are worse than pretty much any ML pitcher you’ll ever see.

[tntoriole]

52 minutes ago, e16bball said:

I was just working up a post where I referred to him as Dr. Fuji and Mr. Nami, so obviously we’re on the right track here…

It’s evident when you just look at the inherited runner history. He’s had 12 appearances where he came on with runners on base, and he’s stranded all of them in 8 of those 12. 

It’s those other 4 games where all the damage came. Twice he came on with the bases loaded and allowed all 3 to score — this might be the situation to avoid, as he’s 0/6 in stranding runners when he enters with the bases loaded. The first time, he took over for A’s reliever Dick Lovelady (technically, he goes by “Richard,” for reasons that are at least somewhat understandable) and promptly walked McCutchen and Reynolds to force in two runs for the Pirates (followed by a sac fly). The second time, he pitched a bit better: 2-run single to Stanton, followed by Ks of Bader and Donaldson. But then Rizzo blooped a single to score the 3rd runner.

The two other trouble outings were the mess we saw against TOR and his second ever relief appearance. In that one, he came on with a runner on 2nd and actually performed admirably. The runner was India, and he scored after stealing 3rd and an infield hit — but Fuji pitched well in that inning. The next inning was a trainwreck, though. Walk, walk, walk, wild pitch, run-scoring single. But that was a clean inning.

 

In sum, it’s pretty clear that some days he just doesn’t have it (or quickly loses it). I think you almost need to plan for it — whether that means having another reliever warming up as soon as he goes in or perhaps inserting him with two outs in an inning, so he only needs to get one to escape if he’s floundering. He’s an inferno when he’s got it going, but his meltdowns are worse than pretty much any ML pitcher you’ll ever see.

You would think with the data capabilities now employed that they would be measuring his bullpen pitches-velo, location, spin etf  and have a database of his that correlates with an  increased meltdown risk.  

[tntoriole]

2 hours ago, Fiver6565 said:

I would think that if you could tell when a reliever is going to be bad during warmups, there’d be a lot less bad reliever outings for all teams. 

I wonder what data analytics are currently applied to bullpen sessions that then may correlate with increase in meltdown risk. 
in the old days, the BP coach would call the manager and say “so and so ain’t got nothing today” 
 

[e16bball]

10 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

You would think with the data capabilities now employed that they would be measuring his bullpen pitches-velo, location, spin etf  and have a database of his that correlates with an  increased meltdown risk.  

You almost wonder about biometric data, as well. Track his pulse, BP, respiration, perspiration — whatever they can — to try to get a feel for where his head is at on any given evening. 

I’m not sure you could effectively monitor or draw conclusions from that in the bullpen, and maybe the mere act of monitoring would make him even more nervous/anxious. But if we’re thinking the problems may be more mental than physical, that would be an interesting route to explore.

[tntoriole]

1 hour ago, e16bball said:

You almost wonder about biometric data, as well. Track his pulse, BP, respiration, perspiration — whatever they can — to try to get a feel for where his head is at on any given evening. 

I’m not sure you could effectively monitor or draw conclusions from that in the bullpen, and maybe the mere act of monitoring would make him even more nervous/anxious. But if we’re thinking the problems may be more mental than physical, that would be an interesting route to explore.

No need for biometrics.. there is a strike zone in the pen and ways to assess if he is hitting it and at what speed etc 

If those metrics are fine, then his performance blows up , then that is more evidence for performance anxiety

But if he just loses his slot and can’t find the plate in the bullpen then other options need to warm up because he isn’t going to find it in the pressure cooker 

Edited August 8, 2023 by tntoriole

[Frobby]

3 hours ago, tntoriole said:

I wonder what data analytics are currently applied to bullpen sessions that then may correlate with increase in meltdown risk. 
in the old days, the BP coach would call the manager and say “so and so ain’t got nothing today” 
 

Every pitcher has stories about how their bullpen performance didn’t match their performance once on the mound.   You hear it all the time. 

[tntoriole]

23 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Every pitcher has stories about how their bullpen performance didn’t match their performance once on the mound.   You hear it all the time. 

I guess my question is more related to whether or not data is being collected rather than stories 

[sportsfan8703]

Fuji is not an arm that can get ours versus good teams. Also, he sort of too much of the same thing with Bautista and Cano. Big Fastball and then wants to throw a change up/split.
 

That’s why Webb is a welcomed addition because he has a 3/4 delivery at least. Webb’s problems were homers, which led to nibbling and a high walk rate. The Wall will “fix” Webb. There is no fixing Fuji. The good teams will simply just wait him out or sit on a grooves Fastball. 

We should be looking to pickup a RH reliever off of waivers. Hopefully, a team that is out of it will DFA a reliever just in hopes that a team like us picks up his salary. 

Fuji reminds me of Jim Hoey. Throws hard, but poor command till you eventually know what’s coming.