In an effort to give you some information that may actually be helpful when watching Jonathan Loaisiga make his MLB debut tonight for the Yankees, I’ve put together a little cheat sheet for you about the rookie pitcher.
As a personal side note, this is one of the reasons I started this blog: I’ve been “efforting” as Michael Kay would say (cringes…shakes head) to provide more than the “Just happy to be here, hope I can help the ball club” information that Simpleton Summer Camp’s Meredith Marakovits will surely give you tonight.
Moving on.
Speaking of journalistic background, it’s pronounced “loh-AYE-see-gah”. John Sterling already butchered it three times last night and the kid hasn’t taken the mound yet.
Loaisiga was born shortly after Bud Selig canceled the World Series because he wasn’t getting enough of the Steinbrenner’s money. His age has been about average for his development – a little old for A ball, but younger than average for AA.
Since the beginning of 2017, he’s progressed from rookie league, to low A ball to high A ball to AA. He’s thrown 75 innings in that span and we know a few things about him:
He strikes batters out, he doesn’t put batters on base and he keeps the ball on the ground. Muy Bueno.
With the I shouldn’t need to write this caveat, that there are no C.J. Cron’s in AA, here’s what Loaisiga has done:
- So far in 2018 across two levels in 45 innings, he has a 14.5 K/BB ratio. (That’s after an 11 to 1 ratio in ’17.)
- Across the four league levels, his K% – BB% has ranged from 28.3% to 32.5%. For perspective, Max Scherzer is currently the only MLB starting pitcher over 30%.
- Across the four levels, his ground ball to fly ball ratio has ranged from 1.47 to 2.36. In MLB terms that’d be top 10-15% in baseball.
Again, a double A pitcher making his debut is usually a stop gap, but this kid is worth checking out tonight. Double A isn’t the big leagues but it’s no joke, and this kid has been great.
The good Lord willing, things will work out.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
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