GET ROWDY:
Luis Severino pitched two scoreless inning in his first start of spring training in 2017. He recorded one strike out, and it was significant. Severino overpowered the Blue Jays hitters in the 1st inning thanks to his 98 MPH fastball (certainly no concern about velocity when it comes to his fastball), but his strike out came in the 2nd inning when he introduced his change up. Rowdy Tellez fell behind in the count 1-2 on FBs and then struck out on an 88 MPH change up.
GOOD, BETTER, BEST:
The good news is that Rowdy was way out in front of the pitch, showing that the pitch had good deception to it, meaning the batter read fast ball out of Severino’s hand causing him to start his swing early. The better news is that the pitch had late movement. As it approached the plate it had sinking action, and it also tailed away from the left handed batter. This late-life was lacking in his change up since Luis came up in Aug 2015. The best news is that as good as the pitch was, there is room for improvement. The pitch was thrown at 88 MPH. When Severino was throwing his best change ups in minors (A & AA) the speed was 82-85 MPH. If Luis can dial the v-lo back to the low-to-mid 80’s it will give even more separation in speed from his fastball and create even more late movement on the pitch.
MORE OR LESS:
So here is what we will be hoping to see in Severino’s next start. More changeups (a higher % of C/U… less sliders & fastballs) Less velocity on changeup (from 88 MPH to 82-85 MPH)
