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Replies to post #201966 on Baseball Chat (BASEBALL)
06/28/22 9:38 PM
One of the Yankees’ feel-good stories of the year has been cut short.
Manny Bañuelos was designated for assignment on Tuesday to make room on the roster for JP Sears, who was called up from Triple-A to make a spot start against the Athletics.
Bañuelos, the former top pitching prospect who finally earned his way to The Bronx this season, was the odd man out in the bullpen after posting a 2.16 ERA across four games in pinstripes.
“Difficult,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously a numbers game, a crunch. One of the things that made it difficult on top of who the person is and the story and how much it’s been a joy to be around him every day … is [that] we really think he can pitch.”
But the left-handed Bañuelos was used sparingly, as protection for length for a team that hasn’t needed it very often. Since being called up on May 26, he pitched only 8 1/3 innings.
Bañuelos did not have any minor league options remaining, leading to his DFA — which will send him through waivers for other teams to potentially claim.
06/30/22 6:54 PM
Marinaccio’s changeup is the sort of frisbee that you take notice of as soon as you see it. It’s almost surprising to see it come from the windup too. His slight hitch and above-average extension give him added deception, which plays up his pitches. However, it also helps in creating some wicked horizontal movement. The pitch induces 17 inches of horizontal break, which stands near the top of the league and is comparable to his fellow reliever, All-Star candidate Michael King, from an extension and movement standpoint.
But the movement isn’t what makes Marinaccio the unicorn. He is very close to the top of that leaderboard, but not quite atop near the Devin Williams and Garret Whitlocks of the world. What makes him special is a stat that I’ve discussed a few times this year when referring to some Yankees pitchers, horizontal approach angle (HAA). Of all the pitchers who have Marinaccio’s level of horizontal run on their changeup and up, none come close to his -1.5 degree HAA.
For a quick recap, HAA indicates the horizontal sharpness that a pitch has when it enters the strike zone. Marinaccio’s -1.5 degree entry means that his changeup enters on a sharper horizontal angle towards a right-handed batter than any other changeup with that level of horizontal run. In fact, the next closest are the aforementioned King himself and Twins starter, Joe Ryan, with a -0.8 degree HAA. That is almost double the next guy! Combine that with his low release point and great extension relative to comparable pitches and you have yourself a unicorn. The numbers against the pitch are backed up too. Hitters have been awful against it, with only a .042 batting average and .083 slugging percentage.
I love unicorn pitches. It’s not often on a baseball field that you can say, “I do this differently from anybody in the world.” Marinaccio can though, and it’s a big reason for his success in the minor leagues and in his time in the bigs this year.
