Recently, I have noticed a trend of young pitchers with command/sequencing profiles over raw stuff; coming up to the MLB and absolutely dominating. Not just dominating, but dominating almost immediately! Guys like Chris Paddack, Shane Bieber and Zac Gallen are great examples.

What makes them stand out even more is that these arms came seemingly out of left field without tons of pedigree and could be had very cheaply in actual MLB deals or had for free in dynasty fantasy leagues. Now, all of these arms had upticks in their raw stuff that contributed, but those reports took awhile to come out.

So I decided to dig in and try to identify this data set so I could filter players who were breaking out before they were household names, while also seeing which pedigree prospects are more than just overpowering stuff.

What I settled on was a swinging strike (SwStk) % of 13% or higher, a non-BIP strike rate of 34% or higher, a total strike % of 65% or higher, 70 plus IP and 3+ distinct pitches. All while reaching full season ball levels. Under the age of 25. These pitchers are poundin’ the zone, showing durability, a viable starters mix to turn the order over multiple times, and most importantly getting strikes swinging and looking at high enough rates to generate high K rates.

MLB names who fit this filter in 2019 are: Shane Bieber, Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg, Matthew Boyd, Jacob Degrom, Zac Gallen and Lucas Giolito. Pretty damn elite company! Names that just missed were Chris Paddack, Charlie Morton, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler. This just enforces the concept to me.

All in all, I wound up with 20 names to highlight that fit my criteria. Here it goes.





1

Joe Ryan

6-1 185, RHP, Rays