Lance Lynn has two bad starts and one good start this year and yesterday was another bad start. Lynn relies heavily on his fastball, throwing it 76% of the time this year; last year he threw it 70% of the time. In the two starts he performed poorly his fastball velocity was low, maxing out at 93 mph while in his good start his fastball maxed out at 95 mph. It could be an oversimplification to say velocity is the reason for his poor performance, but his secondary pitches are fringe average and need to work with the fastball to be effective. If the fastball isn’t effective the secondary stuff will not be as well. In terms of yesterday, he missed the location with his fastball, getting too much of the plate to both lefties and righties. He clearly labored just to get through the five innings he pitched.

James McDonald’s velocity was down to start the game and he was missing up in the zone with the fastball and curveball. It looks as though he’s no longer throwing the slider; last year he threw it 15.6% of the time and got the highest swing and miss rate (whiff rate) of all his pitches last year. I’ve read throwing the slider can put extra strain on a pitcher’s elbow and the pitchers who abandon it is usually a precursor to getting hurt. Maybe that’s why he abandoned it, but either way it’s concerning that he would scrap his best pitch after a year he was extremely effective for 2/3 of a season. Instead of throwing the slider, he’s throwing the curveball more, which doesn’t miss enough bats. If he continues to not throw the slider I’m going to drop him in all my 12 team NFBC leagues.

Aaron Hicks got the day off yesterday. To say he’s looked bad the plate is an understatement. Hopefully Twins manager, Ron Garddenhire moves him down in the order to put less pressure on him. It’s only a matter of time before he’s back in the minors working on his approach.