Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe didn’t need to complicate one thing easy.
The six-year veteran confronted Shintaro Fujinami thrice when the Rays hosted the Oakland Athletics in early April. Like all of his begins to start his MLB profession, Fujinami confirmed flashes of the plus stuff that made him an intriguing pitcher out of Japan, however he was inconsistent and struggled mightily together with his command.
Fujinami allowed 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings in that sport, however that didn’t diminish Lowe’s impression of the 6-foot-6 right-hander.
“I mean, he throws a 95 mph splitter and a 100 mph fastball,” Lowe stated. “I don’t really think there’s a whole lot more I need to add onto that.”
That pairing is what intrigued the Orioles sufficient to make Fujinami the primary in-season main leaguer for whom they’ve given up a prospect to accumulate in govt vice chairman and basic supervisor Mike Elias’ 5 seasons. With 9 days till the Aug. 1 commerce deadline, Fujinami was the primary — and probably solely — addition Baltimore made because it prepares for a stretch run because the American League’s finest workforce.
Fujinami’s first two outings with the Orioles on Friday and Saturday displayed the great, the unhealthy and the ugly of the kind of unstable pitcher they’ve added to their bullpen. He averaged over 100 mph and topped out at 101.5 mph together with his fastball in each appearances. He generated six whiffs on 16 swings, placing out Wander Franco and Harold Ramirez, each on splitters.
While the quantity on the radar gun is awe-inspiring, his fastball nonetheless must be positioned to keep away from being hit laborious, as evidenced by the solo dwelling run Jose Siri hit on the primary pitch of Fujinami’s Orioles profession. And probably the most regarding facet of Fujinami’s first weekend as an Oriole was his management points Saturday, as he walked the primary two batters of the eighth, threw simply 9 of his 24 pitches for strikes and surrendered two runs to permit the Rays to tie a sport Baltimore later gained, 6-5.
“When he throws strikes, he’s tough to hit,” stated Orioles catcher James McCann, who caught Fujinami’s bullpen earlier than Friday’s sport and his outing Saturday.
Lowe, a former standout on the University of Maryland, is amongst a number of Rays hitters who’ve confronted Fujinami a number of instances. While it’s his first in MLB, Fujinami has already pitched in opposition to Tampa Bay 4 instances this season. The first two got here with the Athletics, together with as a one-inning opener in June after he’d been transformed to a reliever, and the previous two with the Orioles.
Lowe went up in opposition to Fujinami thrice in that April begin, lining out to heart subject and strolling twice because the 29-year-old started to unravel. In 51 innings, Fujinami has issued 32 free passes for a stroll charge that’s 58% greater than league common.
“Make him throw strikes,” Lowe stated of the technique in opposition to a pitcher like Fujinami. “The biggest thing is to make sure you’re not helping him out. Make sure he’s coming to you and that you’re not expanding the zone.”
In current years, the Orioles have developed a strong observe report of taking gifted pitchers with command points and turning their careers round. Félix Bautista was in High-A to start the 2021 season and walked almost 13% of batters in his minor league profession, a charge that’s down greater than three proportion factors as a giant leaguer. Cionel Pérez has struggled this season, however final 12 months he was one in all Baltimore’s high relievers by nearly reducing his stroll charge in half. Yennier Cano got here to the Orioles final summer time from the Minnesota Twins within the Jorge López commerce, and his stroll charge went from 16.5% in 2022 to three.4% this season.
Orioles pitching coach Chris Holt stated the method to repair a pitcher’s command points is totally different with each, however he did present fundamental tenets which can be common.
“A couple of things that are general bullet points would be: No. 1, is there something delivery related that can be more consistent, whether it’s body control or timing?” he stated. “No. 2, targeting for certain pitches to certain locations, whether that’s the catcher or visually targeting. And No. 3, just setting the goal for attacking through the zone and forcing hitters to swing the bat.”
That final level — that being aggressive begets constructive outcomes — is one which Rays slugger Luke Raley stated is high of thoughts when he’s dealing with a pitcher deemed to have poor management.
“You turn down the aggressiveness,” Raley stated. “But you also don’t want to take good pitches to hit. It’s one of those things with guys that throw hard, sometimes you make bad decisions. You’ve got to make your decision quick, so there’s definitely an effectively wild kind of aspect there where he throws so hard, you’ve got to make a decision early.”
Whether Fujinami is, certainly, “effectively wild” will depend on, properly, whether or not or not he’s truly efficient. In his 18 1/3 innings earlier than the commerce, he posted a 2.45 ERA with 19 strikeouts versus simply six walks. But on the season, he owns an 8.82 ERA and 1.69 WHIP; since Oakland moved him to the bullpen in late April, these numbers fall to six.50 and 1.53.
Holt stated Fujinami’s “unpredictability,” on high of his plus stuff, is what could make him efficient.
“If he’s commanding his pitches and is improving his zone percentage but also can mix his speeds and mix his pitch types, he can remain unpredictable with improved command,” Holt stated. “He’s shown already this season out of the bullpen that he’s capable of getting both left-handed batters and right-handed batters out. The immediate goal is for him to come in here and do what he’s really good at and go do it a bunch. We’re not looking to, say, fix him as much as have him be consistent at what he’s good at.”
So what’s Fujinami good at? Throwing heaters and splitters. Over the previous two months, he’s trimmed down his pitch arsenal from greater than 5 choices to nearly solely these two, whereas additionally mixing in some sweepers and some cutters.
“He’s got some electric stuff,” Raley stated. “He’s obviously got a good fastball, and his splitter plays really well off that.”
If the fastball-splitter mixture sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of it’s the identical one Bautista sports activities. While each have near-triple-digit heaters and splitters that may be devastating, the underlying metrics of these pitches are far totally different. Bautista’s splitter is 11 mph slower than his four-seamer, whereas Fujinami’s is simply 5.5 mph slower. And on account of his arm slot and skill to spin the ball, Bautista’s fastball has a lot much less vertical drop, whereas Fujinami’s strikes extra horizontally however has a lot much less backspin.
Another distinction is that Bautista has mastered what makes him efficient in his second season to grow to be maybe the majors’ most dominant reliever, whereas Fujinami continues to be ready for his massive league breakthrough after pitching the primary 10 years of his skilled profession in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
The Orioles are hoping the pitcher he was on the finish of his tenure with the Athletics is who he’ll be for them down the stretch — or perhaps even higher. Bullpen assist was Baltimore’s most obtrusive want going into the deadline, and Fujinami has the potential to be one other high-leverage reliever at supervisor Brandon Hyde’s disposal.
After getting his ft moist Friday with the Orioles trailing 2-0, Hyde went together with his latest arm in a decent sport Saturday slightly than asking Cano to pitch one other inning. While it didn’t go properly, it gained’t be Fujinami’s final look in a high-leverage spot.
“His stuff is great,” Hyde stated after the sport. “He’s going to be a huge help to us.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com