Kade Strowd 2024

[Tony-OH]

Ok, I'm starting a thread for him because I think he's a guy who has really popped this year. Strowd has always had a good fastball (95-97, t98) with high spin rate breaking balls. 

But he's transformed him self into a guy with a really good cutter. Last night he made his AAA debut which meant we got statcast data on him and here's what we saw.

He came in and threw his new cutter 92% of the time throwing his 4 seamer just once. He varied his speed in his cutter from 91.6 to 95.2 and got a 40% whiff rate. 

Keep an eye on him. As I mentioned on my 105.7 stint last Thursday (11:00 this year), Strowd is the one guy I think could end up helping the Orioles in the pen at some point this year. 

He's basically turning himself into Mariano Rivera using the cutter almost exclusively, at least in this first game. Now I'm not saying he is Mariano Rivera, but Rivera is the first guy I think of who survived with a cutter as main/only pitch. 

Last guy I saw in the minor who dominated like this was Felix Bautista, who went from A-ball to the majors in one season when he broke out.

 

[Frobby]

Well, you definitely got my attention!

[Jim'sKid26]

So a 26 yo RHP 6'2" 200 lbs. 2019 Draft class Round: 12, Overall Pick: 348 out of West Virginia. 

Interesting. @Tony-OH it looks like he just got on your radar. 

[CaptainRedbeard]

The quick promotion to AAA already had my attention, but I had no idea about the cutter. Those spin rates on a cutter are insane! No wonder AA hitters couldn’t touch him. 

That’s absolutely the profile of a guy who could be a dominant RP with 70%-90% cutters and an upper 90s fastball as the “change of pace.”  If he can fill up the zone with those two pitches he’s going to be very exciting. 

[Just Regular]

As much as we'll speculate about the Kopechs and Helsleys of the world, much of the game is the Clubs sifting literally thousands of guys like this finding the right way to turn the dials.

Last 12 months, Robert Stephenson's case has been a pretty dramatic one.    Was his labor valuable because of him, or how Tampa's braintrust saw he could excel?

It sounds like Strowd hasn't always been a cutter only guy.    I'd guess the Sigbot is also equipping him with "here are the cliches we'd prefer you tell Roch Kubatko" if or when the time comes.

The more Felix Bautistas you can make, the better...go Orioles coaches!

Here's Strowd tied with Bryan Woo high in the 99th percentile of WHIP among all Minors arms at 10 innings this year.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league?pos=all&level=0&lg=2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,12,13,15,16,17,18,30,32&stats=pit&qual=10&type=1&team=&season=2024&seasonEnd=2024&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=false&players=&sort=13,-1

[joelala]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

Ok, I'm starting a thread for him because I think he's a guy who has really popped this year. Strowd has always had a good fastball (95-97, t98) with high spin rate breaking balls. 

But he's transformed him self into a guy with a really good cutter. Last night he made his AAA debut which meant we got statcast data on him and here's what we saw.

He came in and threw his new cutter 92% of the time throwing his 4 seamer just once. He varied his speed in his cutter from 91.6 to 95.2 and got a 40% whiff rate. 

Keep an eye on him. As I mentioned on my 105.7 stint last Thursday (11:00 this year), Strowd is the one guy I think could end up helping the Orioles in the pen at some point this year. 

He's basically turning himself into Mariano Rivera using the cutter almost exclusively, at least in this first game. Now I'm not saying he is Mariano Rivera, but Rivera is the first guy I think of who survived with a cutter as main/only pitch. 

Last guy I saw in the minor who dominated like this was Felix Bautista, who went from A-ball to the majors in one season when he broke out.

 

Oooo hell yea. On my radar now, thanks for the write-up!

[sportsfan8703]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

Ok, I'm starting a thread for him because I think he's a guy who has really popped this year. Strowd has always had a good fastball (95-97, t98) with high spin rate breaking balls. 

But he's transformed him self into a guy with a really good cutter. Last night he made his AAA debut which meant we got statcast data on him and here's what we saw.

He came in and threw his new cutter 92% of the time throwing his 4 seamer just once. He varied his speed in his cutter from 91.6 to 95.2 and got a 40% whiff rate. 

Keep an eye on him. As I mentioned on my 105.7 stint last Thursday (11:00 this year), Strowd is the one guy I think could end up helping the Orioles in the pen at some point this year. 

He's basically turning himself into Mariano Rivera using the cutter almost exclusively, at least in this first game. Now I'm not saying he is Mariano Rivera, but Rivera is the first guy I think of who survived with a cutter as main/only pitch. 

Last guy I saw in the minor who dominated like this was Felix Bautista, who went from A-ball to the majors in one season when he broke out.

 

Nice.  Burnes is pretty cutter heavy too.  Gotta love when these reliever types just come out of nowhere.  

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

So a 26 yo RHP 6'2" 200 lbs. 2019 Draft class Round: 12, Overall Pick: 348 out of West Virginia. 

Interesting. @Tony-OH it looks like he just got on your radar. 

I've been following since I heard about his spin rates and velocity two years ago. I kind of dropped him off after last season at Bowie when he just really didn't command anything and lefties lit him up for a .287/.415/.475/.890. It appears to me that he's ditched the slider with the bigger downward break and gone to this cutter with the quick late break. 

All I know is that he was impressive the couple times I watched him this year and the improvements are seen in the stats with the lack of walks and high K rate. 

How good is that spin on the cutter? Only 7 major league pitchers have averages above his 2677 spin rate. They include Corbin Burnes, Dylan Cease, Sonny Gray, and JP France. 

It appears to me that he throw two different type of cutters, with one being slower and having slider movement. 

He threw 12 cutters:

8 had 0-7 inches of Horizontal movement and 23-30 Vertical movement
4 had 12-19 inches of Horizontal movement and 30-33 Vertical movement

The highest average horizontal movement in the MLB is by 7.3 inches by Chris Flexen (so the 12-19 inches of horizontal are off the charts by cutter standards)
Vertical movement is supposed to be a lower number like a fastball so the best is 14.3 by David Robertson. 
It's hard to even find a comp for Strowd's cutter velocity and vertical wise.

When I look at major league movement on cutters and sliders, it appears to me that he's throwing a sorta hybrid cutter/slider which may be given batters fits because they are not use to seeing that. 

Either way, he's become real interesting.
 

 

 

[Fiver6565]

Have to assume that the FO is seeing the same thing you are Tony, hence the relatively quick move up to AAA.  Exciting stuff.

[Just Regular]

Let's pitch him against Vladimir Guerrero and see what happens!

Orioles have had some good success with West Virginia University around round 11-12.

[LookinUp]

On 5/8/2024 at 2:36 PM, Tony-OH said:

He threw 12 cutters:

8 had 0-7 inches of Horizontal movement and 23-30 Vertical movement
4 had 12-19 inches of Horizontal movement and 30-33 Vertical movement

...

Tony, this was in AAA, and AAA uses the major league ball now, right?

If so, whoa!

[Tony-OH]

18 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

Tony, this was in AAA, and AAA uses the major league ball now, right?

If so, whoa!

Yes and yes.

[Just Regular]

His Game Log is interesting - they are resting him a lot between turns.     Have to figure that helps the juice the 1-2 innings per week he does pitch, but also seems like the kind of thing you might do if you were confident the pitch metrics would play and want them available at a time of your choosing.

4.21, 4.25, 4.30, 5.3, 5.7, 5.12 the most recent 6 turns.

[btownoriole]

Great stuff Tony - thanks.  Had been hearing his name and now I know why.

Reading about his cutter brought back some bad memories though.  The Orioles have come a long way since Dan Duquette and his philosophies about the cutter in the minor leagues!

[Aristotelian]

Great find Tony.

BB% has dropped from 5.2 last year to 0.7. That could be a game changer if it sticks.