Slow Start
Morning Dose: Friday, March 13
☀️ Good Morning:
We are less than two weeks away from Opening Day. It honestly can’t get her soon enough. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on our Streaming Guide and I’m excited about your ideas for future dashboard builds. Let’s jump into the latest happenings.
❶ Sean Manaea’s concerning fastball velocity.
❷ Luis Robert Jr. makes the most of first Grapefruit game.
❸ Jorge Polanco swinging a hot bat.
And stay for the final outs for some interesting notes on Craig Kimbrel.
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
❶ SLOW START
Sean Manaea is throwing only 88 mph.
88.8 to be exact. Which is nearly three ticks below his average from last season.
It was his second straight start of missing his typical radar gun mark. And this one was a battle. Manaea offered up his four-seamer 50% of the time against the Cardinals on Thursday. And they had no trouble hitting it, making contact on nine of their 11 swings, turning three into hard-hit balls.
"I feel healthy, I feel good,” Manaea told reporters after the game. “To me, I’m not concerned about anything.”
I’m not sure if that should make fans feel good or bad. At least if it was a health issue, there would be a simpler explanation for his lack of velocity.
⇢ Is this just his normal ramp up? Not a bad question. It’s one thing to compare velocity between regular season starts, but what if we focused on how hard he tends to throw during the spring? Unfortunately, that doesn’t help his case.
