.
Q. I'm one of your legions of new readers. What could the above chart possibly mean?
A. From the catcher's perspective, that's how much Bass' pitches "move" (deflect) in the air. As opposed to, if Bass were throwing the ball in a vacuum, they would all hit the crosshairs in the middle.
- Purple = Slider
- Green = Cutter
- Blue = "No spin" fastball
- Teal = "Extra spin" fastball
- Red = Splitfinger
The only thing interesting here is that Bass can throw a really hard "cut" fastball. ("Cut" means you spin it like a football spiral, and it gets too far in to LH batters for them to do much with it. You throw it behind in the count for weak contact.) Sure enough, last year Bass threw 97 cutters to lefties and got terrific results. Generally speaking, it's one of Bass' skills that he can limit damage.
.
Q. What kind of pitcher is he generally?
A. His slash line last year was 6.3 strikeouts, 2.8 walks, and a mere 0.7 homers, was a fair representation of where he is now. The strikeouts are BELOW normal these days, especially for a relief pitcher, but so are the BB and HR. Thus saith Jerry. "I'll trade some strikeouts to limit free bases."
Bass is the kind of guy who doesn't beat himself. Supposing you had a good defense in a big park, that would be good. Supposing you also had a great offense, put him in the rotation and collect your 17 wins.
This, of course, is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what we've seen the last two years, a parade of relief scrubs with explosive stuff, no command, and minus production. You want to authentically contrast Jerry DiPoto with Jack Zduriencik, contrast Anthony Bass with J.C. Ramirez, Rob Rasmussen, Jose Ramirez, Danny Farquhar, Mayckol Gauipe, Edgar James Olmos, ...
.
Q. What do his pitches look like?
A. Dr. D watched about six videos' worth; this one rat cheer is middle of the road as far as his "stuff" is concerned. He had good command that day.
SLIDER: Throws it almost 30% of the time and maintains a +1.00 run value. Sweet! Like we say, that's a lot of production given that he relies on it so heavily -- it's like getting 5.0 yards per carry not on six carries, but on 24 carries.
Gets solid to good arm action. Looks like Carson Smith's slider, about 70% as nasty. It's a plus pitch, no doubt, but it ain't Joaquin Benoit's change. No way no how.
FASTBALL: Only fair velocity out of the pen, but he can spin it In, Out, Up and has pretty good location.
SPLIT: I only saw one of 'em, on all the vids. Looked a lot like his slider. Wasn't a Clemens-style spikeball that would blow down hitters trying to pick it out of their shoes.
.
Q. What was this about a splitfinger leaping him a plateau?
A. Fangraphs has an article where Bass sells this hard. And, no doubt, if he COULD get one of those going, he could leap his K's from 6 to 8. Dr. D saw zero evidence of it. But then, Dr. D has seen zero evidence of nuclear submarines or special vanilla-pollenating bees.
.
Q. He calls himself a "utility pitcher?"
A. This guy can truly give you 3-4 innings, even 5 innings out of the pen on a moment's notice. No. Problem. Check out his game logs :- )
.
Q. How are his mechanics? Does he have a starter's rhythm?
A. He messed himself up trying to imitate Tim Lincecum's corkscrew, which still shows on some of the early 2015 vids. Now he's back to "average" motion and rhythm.
.
Q. Leaving us where?
A. The mainframe grok is --- > I wouldn't oversell him as an individual pitcher, in terms of being some kind of Nate Karns or something.
But in a 25-man context ... DiPoto (from LAA) thought the M's #18-25 players have been a laughingstock. Bass is sort of like TWO legit pitchers at the end of the bullpen, in the sense that on a given night he can give you 2 pitchers' worth of production.
Bill James' Perfect Pitching Staff had two decent-to-quality "swing men" on the roster. Viewing Anthony Bass as your worst pitcher, he's actually a really cool Last Pitcher on the Staff. Looks like mission accomplished on the #23 roster slot.
BABVA,
Dr D
