Earlier in the offseason the Angels acquired starting pitcher Dylan Bundy from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for pitchers Issac Mattson, Kyle Bradish, Zack Peek, and Kyle Brnovich. It was a good start to the Halos “rebuilding” their starting rotation that had been devastated by injuries the year before.

In 2019 with the O’s, the then 27 year old started in 30 games where he went 7-14. He pitched in 161.2 innings, accumulated a 2.5 fWAR, a 4.79 ERA, 4.73 FIP, 162 strike outs(23.1 K%), 58 walks(8.3 BB%), 41.5 ground ball percentage, and had a 12.9 swing and miss percentage. A bit of a negative from Bundy is that he does have a little bit of a home run problem as he has has given up 94 of them over the past 3 years, though Baltimore does tend to be a bit of a hitters park. His 2020 steamer projections from Fangraphs aren’t too shabby, as they project him to pitch in 178 innings which would be the most innings pitched by an Angels starter since Andrew Heaney in 2018 pitched 180. Fangraphs also has him projected to accumulate a 2.2 WAR, have a 4.47 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 177 strike outs(23.4 K%), and 53 walks(7.0 BB%).

While yearly stats and predictions are cool and everything, let’s get to the fun stuff shall we!

Like always let’s do a pitch by pitch in depth break down of Dylan Bundy starting with his four seam fastball. In 2019 he threw his fastball 1178(42.4% if the time) and basically split the difference between righties and lefties, 608 times to righties and 570 times to lefties. Right handed hitters slashed .239/.315/.472 with a 5.02 ERA, 4.73 FIP, and a 41.1 ground ball percentage. Lefties slashed .274/.329/.452, with a 4.54 ERA, 4.73 FIP, and a 36.7 ground ball percentage. He averaged a 2458 spin rate on this pitch with an average exit velocity of 89 MPH, an average launch angle of 24 degrees, and a Whiff% of 16.7%. With a high spin rate and I would assume a good spin efficiency come less vertical movement, and that is the case here with Bundy’s four seam as it averages 14.6 inches of movement which is 14% better than the league average. The average velocity on this pitch is just 91.1 MPH. Normally with a high spin rate, and low vertical break you would normally want to throw your fastball up in the zone, which is what Bundy did last year a lot, but in my opinion he should be pitching down in the zone more because he has less velocity.

Next let’s move to Dylan Bundy’s sinker/two seam fastball. In 2019 he threw this pitch 209 times, or just 7.5% if the time, 136 times to righties and 73 times to lefties. It’s kind of interesting to me that he threw it more to righties than lefties because a lot of the time right handed pitchers feel more comfortable throwing this type of pitch to lefties only because they feel like they have better control with it as well as it usually works better against lefties, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. This pitch had an average velocity of 91.3 mph, and a spin rate of 2288. Batters had an xBA of .270 against it, a wOBP if .312, an xSLG of .378, and a 14.3 Whiff%. Like I said before, if you kill spin on your ball you’re going to get more vertical movement on it, and that is what he does with this pitch, but not very well as it averaged 18.8 inches of vertical movement which is 18% lower than the league average. This pitch also averages 13.3 inches of horizontal break which is 9% lower than the league average. Now one might be thinking that since this pitch has below average movement why does he throw it? This pitch and his changeup have very similar spin direction on it, and can look like very similar pitched out of the hand, but do do different things.

Next, let’s move onto Bundys best secondary pitch which is his slider. He threw this pitch 632 times(22.8%) last year, and mainly to righties(557 times). The average velocity on this pitch was 81.8 MPH, and it had an average spin rate of 2573. Last season opposing hitters had a .158 xBA, .222 wOBP, .247 xSLG, average exit velocity of 84.4 MPH, and a Whiff% of 47.9%. It has an average vertical break of 44.6 inches, which is 5% higher than the average, and it has a horizontal break of 5.5 inches which is 34% less than the league average. I think that the Angels should make Bundy throw this pitch about 300 times more next year, because this pitch is a HUGE key to his success in 2020.

Next up is Dylan Bundy’s changeup. If the Angels can get this pitch going, and get it hit a less I think this could be an even better pitch for him. Last season he threw this pitch 483 times, or 17.4% of the time. It has an average velocity of 83.4 MPH, average exit velocity of 87.3 MPH, an average launch angle of 2 degrees, and an average spin rate of 1569(kill spin, create depth). Last season against this pitch hitter had a .252 xBA, .312 wOBP, .375 xSLG, and a 32.5 Whiff%. While this pitch has a similar spin direction to his sinker/two seam, he kills spin on it which increases the vertical movement which averaged 32.7 inches last season. This pitch also has very similar horizontal break to his two seam as it averaged 12.8 inches of movement last season.

Finally is Dylan Bundy‘s curveball, and in my opinion this pitch might be the key to his success next season. Last year he only threw this pitch just 276 times, or 9.9% of the time. It has an average velocity of 74.8 MPH, average exit velocity of 87.3 MPH, and average spin rate of 2404. This pitch pairs very nicely with his four seam fastball as they have very similar spin direction, and work very well with each other if he wants to throw the fastball up in the zone. While his four seam fastball spins at about a 1:00 direction, his curveball spins at about a 7:00 direction making them look like very similar pitches out of the hand, but move completely different directions. Last season hitter had a .218 xBA, .248 wOBP, .360 xSLG, and a 28.7 Whiff%. It averaged 64.5 inches of vertical movement which is 4% higher than the average, and only 9 inches of horizontal movement, which is 10% below average.

What I think he should do to be a better pitcher in 2020:

1. He throws both of his four seam fastball and curveball and very similar spin directions. Which is in between 12:30-1:30 on his fastball and 6:30-7:30 on his curveball. Those two pitches should be sequenced with each other more because they work very well with each other and can be tunneled well. Fastball up in the zone followed by a curveball.

2. He should throw both us two seam and changeup together because they both spin between 2:00 and 2:30 and can be sequenced well with each other.

3. His slider is arguably his best pitch with his best control of secondary with it too. He should try to throw this pitch more as well as he can get a lot of swing and misses with it.

4. Stop throwing his fastball as much, and start throwing his slider and change up more.