After a shaky first two innings, Brad Peacock settled down looked like a solid pitcher, retiring eight Athletics hitters in a row before being pulled in the 5th inning. At the beginning of the game he was only throwing a curveball and fastball, which allowed hitters to sit dead red on a pitch. However, at the start of the 3rd inning, also when he began his hitless streak, he started throwing his changeup, which allowed his fastball to play up. His fastball sat in the low 90s and the curveball sat 73-75 mph. By utilizing the changeup, which sat 79-81 mph added a wider separation in the velocity of all his pitches. If he’s going to be successful he’s going to need the changeup. His next three starts are at Seattle, at Oakland and home against Seattle. In 12+ team mixed leagues, Peacock should be picked up.
Dan Straily did not pitch as well as box score would suggest. He missed a lot of bats, but 7 out of the 11 strikeouts came from Brett Wallace and Rick Ankiel, both of which are struggling on fastballs high in the zone. Despite the great performance the A’s optioned him to Triple-A to make room for Bartolo Colon, who will pitch today. Straily should be owned 12+ mixed leagues because he’ll be the first one called up when there’s an injury.
Wade Davis’ couldn’t locate his pitches in his brief outing against the Phillies last night. When he missed, he missed in the middle of the zone. The average velocity of his fastball and its other variations were down compared to 2011, the last time he was a starting pitcher, 90.6 mph and 91.4 mph respectively. I’m not sold on Davis as a starter because all of his pitches are thrown with the same velocity except for the curveball, which he only threw four times. If there’s no separation in velocity hitters will gear up for one speed the entire game, making the pitches more hittable.
Ivan Nova stayed at the “in” yesterday as he was inefficient and ineffective. He looked in bursts but he was unable to go for the jugular, instead trying to be cute by hugging the corners. Checkout the Nova’s heat map for the game yesterday.
