Thursday, April 23, 2015

Nathan Eovaldi Giving Yankees Fans Hope


Nathan Eovaldi’s stat line may not give Yankees fans much to be happy about but if you have actually been watching the games you would know that the young RHP is giving Yankees fans everywhere a little hope with every start he makes. Eovaldi pitched into the 8th inning with a shutout going for the Yankees against the best team in baseball, at the time, in the Detroit Tigers. Eovaldi made the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Yoenis Cespedes look overmatched at times as they continuously pounded the ball into the ground or struck out on high 90’s heat. Many weren’t happy about the trade that saw David Phelps and Martin Prado head to Miami for Eovaldi and Garrett Jones but those doubters may change their mind by the end of the season.

Eovaldi credits his sensational start to a mechanical change, a change in his arm angle, for the great start in Detroit. It’s worth remembering or noting as well for those who didn’t watch the game that the temperatures were in the 40’s and there was a slight to heavy rain for much of the night, not that it seemed to bother Eovaldi in the slightest. Eovaldi’s always had a fastball that could touch 100 MPH but always lacked a true breaking ball and put away pitch entering the 2015 season but if the young Texan can replicate that arm angle going forward he may have found two in one night with his slider and his curveball. Both were thrown in pitchers counts and both were breaking well enough to keep the Detroit batters off balance and more importantly inside the ballpark. Eovaldi moved the ball with all his pitches at will, both north and south and east and west, and really took a step forward in his development in front of our eyes in my opinion.


Eovaldi induced three ground ball double plays and induced another on a line drive comebacker due to the fact that he consistently had the Tigers hitters pounding the ball into the dirt. Whether this is a glimpse into the future of what Eovaldi can do for the Yankees or if this is just another tease of what kind of potential he has when his off-speed stuff is on is yet to be determined but you have to at least get a little excited about what Eovaldi did against Detroit and hope that he can build on that going forward. Eovaldi’s final line was 7+ IP with one earned run with one walk and four strikeouts. Eovaldi is now 1-0 for the Yankees and if he pitches like he did Tuesday night in Detroit he could see quite a few more wins on the back of his baseball card in 2015 for New York.

1 comment:

  1. As we are only 15(?) games into the season, I will not crucify or sanctify any one player so far.
    I must admit I am happily surprised by Nathans game for many reasons; he showed he can get ground balls when needed and didn't go for the SO every time he was in trouble...thus, saving his pitch count and getting a more valuable double play. I never knew he could break off his curve and slider as he did in that game, from what I had seen before, he was a two pitch pitcher. Now with three pitches, if one is not working he can still show it but use two pitches to get the job done.
    As with Warren last night, he is a fighter and hopefully as Daniel so eloquently pointed out, he will improve as the year goes forward.

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)