Minor League Game thread – 2026 Week 15

[AlbertTheMachine]

Everyone has bad nights and Kade is an MLB ready pitcher. If called up today, Kade would immediately be better than any pitcher for the Cardinals. The Mariners give guys maybe 1 or 2 AAA starts before an MLB promotion. They are maybe going to trade from pitching depth this year to free up a rotation spot for Kade in a few weeks as well.

[LACardFan]

They are maybe going to trade from pitching depth this year to free up a rotation spot for Kade in a few weeks as well.

I don’t think they are going to trade from pitching depth. They were quite thin on MLB-ready depth coming into the season, and their preference during the offseason was to trade prospects for MLB talent. I expect that to be the case at the trade deadline.

The only starter they want to move is Castillo, and he has to approve any trade.

[blingboy]

It has been a long time since Mathews gave up a hit an inning (6 IP, 6 H) and its been even longer since he didn’t walk anyone. I almost wonder if he changed up his approach a bit. Can anyone determine if there was anything different about his mix of pitches thrown, or any other observable difference?

[AlbertTheMachine]

Bling:

Can anyone determine if there was anything different about his mix of pitches thrown, or any other observable difference?

I went and pulled his data form the minors statcast page and then parsed his overall numbers into 3 groups. April/May, June/July, and the single game from last night.

April / May

+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Pitch Type       | Usage % | Zone% | Velocity | SwStr% | Whiff% |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| 4-Seam Fastball  | 43.0%   | 46.0% | 93.8     | 8.9%   | 23.8%  |
| Slider           | 21.6%   | 39.0% | 84.4     | 18.3%  | 40.0%  |
| Changeup         | 16.2%   | 33.3% | 82.2     | 16.3%  | 33.9%  |
| Curveball        | 10.9%   | 26.5% | 76.0     | 12.0%  | 40.0%  |
| Sinker           | 8.2%    | 50.0% | 93.8     | 8.1%   | 17.9%  |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Total            |         | 40.6% |          | 12.4%  | 30.4%  |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+

June / July

+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Pitch Type       | Usage % | Zone% | Velocity | SwStr% | Whiff% |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| 4-Seam Fastball  | 40.0%   | 55.2% | 93.8     | 7.7%   | 20.5%  |
| Slider           | 23.5%   | 43.9% | 85.8     | 21.1%  | 38.7%  |
| Changeup         | 17.1%   | 33.7% | 82.5     | 19.3%  | 44.4%  |
| Curveball        | 11.5%   | 42.9% | 75.9     | 1.8%   | 6.3%   |
| Sinker           | 7.8%    | 57.9% | 94.3     | 5.3%   | 18.2%  |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Total            |         | 47.6% |          | 12.0%  | 29.3%  |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+

July 3rd

+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Pitch Type       | Usage % | Zone% | Velocity | SwStr% | Whiff% |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Slider           | 28.1%   | 60.0% | 86.3     | 8.0%   | 15.4%  |
| Sinker           | 22.5%   | 55.0% | 94.6     | 0.0%   | 0.0%   |
| 4-Seam Fastball  | 19.1%   | 58.8% | 95.2     | 0.0%   | 0.0%   |
| Changeup         | 15.7%   | 42.9% | 82.3     | 28.6%  | 57.1%  |
| Curveball        | 14.6%   | 69.2% | 76.5     | 0.0%   | 0.0%   |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+
| Total            |         | 57.3% |          | 6.7%   | 17.1%  |
+------------------+---------+-------+----------+--------+--------+

Last night he dropped his 4 seam rate a good amount and replaced it with a sinker and traded whiff for contact on his results. Overall his Zone% was much higher yesterday. His numbers from June/July are a really big improvement over his early season zone %.

[blingboy]

Well, yes I can see he moved away from heavy use of the 4 seamer with more sliders and two seamers, which he didn’t use much before. He was noticeably more over the plate with everything. It is going to be fun to see what he does next time.

Thanks for putting in the time to pull that info and put it together.

[Author]

Posts