2024-04-23 08:16:35
This article is compiled from A first look at Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell
About two months ago, spring training fields began to surrender, symbolizing the end of winter and the arrival of the new season. While most of the players showed up and started playing practice matches, two people were absent.
respectively classified in our pre-seasonFree agents ranked fifth and sixthBlake Snell and Jordan Montgomery both signed exciting contracts just before the season started, and Montgomery didn’t find new ownership until two days before the home opener. They can only accept shorter contracts than expected, and the total value is much lower than the 188 million we predicted.
As the first signee, Snell was the first to take the mound. After playing only one internal game with his teammates, he took over in the Giants’ 11th game of the season. Montgomery was initially assigned to Triple-A and started two games for Leno’s team before returning to the major leagues and pitching last Saturday. And his first game was quite interesting, once morest Snell and his Giants. It also gave us the opportunity to compare “how much impact this will have on the two’s performance following having an abnormal offseason.”
Given both men’s past performances and the offseason drama, the “Snell vs. Montgomery” matchup is particularly enticing, but it also comes with a lot of uncertainty. How will Montgomery perform in the first game? Can Snell bounce back from two straight blowouts? Will their skills become a little rusty following a month away?
Snell pitched relatively well in the first half of the inning following getting a hit in the first at bat, Snell used his slider and changeup to catch three outs. Then it was Montgomery’s turn to face a Giants lineup filled with right-handers like Austin Slater and Tom Murphy. Slater struck out first, and Montgomery’s first pitch of the season was a 91.4-mile sinker, nearly 2 miles slower than last year’s average.
His ball speed throughout the match was within this range, which was obviously due to the late start to the match. Slater eventually hit a low-angle curveball that landed, and the next two batters grounded as well.
Aside from both being lefties signed to short-term contracts, Snell and Montgomery have almost nothing in common, including their pitching style. Snell never limited himself to the traditional strike zone, adept at using fastballs above the strike zone and changeups below to confuse hitters. His high strikeouts and high walk pattern helped him win two Cy Young Awards, but in the four years between the two Cy Young Awards, he had only a very ordinary 96 ERA.
Montgomery, on the other hand, relies entirely on the strike zone and is known for his excellent ball control and rich vertical shifts. Although he never reached Snell’s heights, he has accumulated more WAR than Snell over the past three seasons.
Snell threw a three-on-three in the second inning. Gabriel Moreno, who struck out last, struggled with him for seven pitches. After falling behind with one fair and three bad balls, he used a fastball with a low strike zone to make Moreno miss the swing. The next ball was out of bounds. maintain complete coverage. The number of pitches, two fastballs and four sliders were used to hit the mat. What will he do with the next throw? He hit it with a curveball that was low and inside.
That’s what Snell does when he’s good, even if he doesn’t hit the strike zone, he can control the ball where he wants to go. After using low fastballs and sliders to get hitters to target that spot, Moreno chased down a foul ball that fell two inches further than Snell’s other pitches. Last season, Snell ranked second in the league with 310 strikes outside the strike zone, mostly changeups that came early following the fastball was established.
Unfortunately, Snell’s strategy might not be implemented consistently in the remaining games. Too many balls went straight into the red. Two sliders and changeups that went into the red were hit hard by Blaze Alexander and Ketel Marte, respectively. In the fourth inning, Alexander struck out once more, this time once morest his fastball. Snell allowed four more hits in the fifth inning and ultimately left the game before finishing the inning. It was the third straight game in which he pitched fewer than five innings. The Diamondbacks allowed nine hits once morest him, their most since 2019.
Most of Snell’s hits were pitches caught in the red by Diamondbacks hitters, a rarity for a guy who rarely threw in the strike zone. But in a small sample size of three starts, Snell threw more pitches in the red, leading to worse hits and fewer swings.
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