Is Yankees Pitching Prospect Andrew Brackman Already a Bust?
August 11, 2009 · Greg Fertel · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
1-12 Record, 90.2 IP, 76 R, 67 ER, 94 H, 66 BB, 86 K, 6.65 ERA, 1.76 WHIP
That is not the type of line you expect from a first round pick who is signed to a major league contract worth a minimum of $4.55 million. This hasn’t been a case of bad luck, either. His FIP stands at 4.96 and his tRA is at 6.50.
Since Brackman has been moved to the bullpen at this point to cut down on his innings and see if he can be more effective, I thought it was time to take a deeper look into his season.
While Brackman’s overall line looks terrible, this season has been a tale of two different pitchers. In his first nine starts, Brackman actually pitched very well:
9 GS, 50.2 IP, 20 ER, 47 H, 3 HR, 46 K, 18 BB, 3.59 ERA, 3.21 FIP
In his 10th start of the season, on May 26, Brackman walked 10 while striking out only 1 in 3.1 innings. Prior to the start, Brackman hadn’t issued more than three walks in a game. His line since May 26, including that start:
13 G(10 GS), 40 IP, 47 ER, 47 H, 5 HR, 40 K, 48 BB, 10.58 ERA, 6.88 FIP
The difference between these perfomances is huge, so the question is: What changed?
About a month ago, my thought was that Brackman was injured. I asked Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, also known as the injury expert, if he thought the decline in Brackman’s performance could be due to injury. He responded that the more likely answer is that he is just bad.
At this point, the Yankees have kept on throwing him out there, so I don’t believe there is any chance he is injured. He is just coming back from Tommy John Surgery, so if there was any fear of injury, he would not be pitching.
As I just mentioned, Brackman is coming back from TJS, the problem could be that he needs to build up arm strength and that he is fatigued. Remember, not only has he thrown 90.2 innings this season, but he threw another 14.2 in Hawaii Winter Baseball.
Recent scouting reports are very down on Brackman. According to Dave Cameron at FanGraphs, Brackman sat 90-92 with his fastball in the first inning, but then was down to 88 in the second inning with a terrible breaking ball.
This season has definitely been a big hit to Brackman’s prospect status, and at age 23, he is very old for A ball. At this point, it is too early to give up on Brackman. He is just returning from Tommy John Surgery and has stayed healthy all season. Maybe he just needed a season to build up arm strength after surgery. We’ll know which it is at the start of next season.
If he enters next season throwing 96 mph gas like he was throwing in Hawaii, I think it will be a season to look forward to. If not, though, I think we’ll be even closer to throwing that bust tag on Andrew Brackman.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section. Statistics were found on Fangraphs. You can follow me on Twitter @GregFertel and find some of my other work at Pending Pinstripes.
Yankee Tickets
Shop Yankee
.…
ñïñ çà èÃôó!…