Reds relievers and ground ball rates

Yesterday in my weekly article at Redleg Nation I looked at who the top ground ball pitchers were among the starters in the organization. Two guys who split time between the bullpen and rotation topped the list, but among full-time starters it was Tejay Antone with a 66% ground ball rate at the top of the chart.

Today I thought it would be good to look at the reliever side of the spectrum. To qualify for the list a pitcher had to make less than 10 starts in full-season ball and pitch 20.0 or more innings in a stateside league (or leagues if they were in multiple leagues this season). That left us with 50 pitchers. Here’s what the Top 10 looked like:

Evan Mitchell is at the top of the list and by a significant margin. He has a 5% point lead over the next best guy. That’s the same difference that’s between second and 11th on the list. The 24-year-old Mitchell split time in Daytona and Pensacola this season where he posted a 2.87 ERA in 62.2 innings. He allowed just two home runs all year, which given his ground ball tendencies isn’t very surprising. He’s been an elite ground ball pitcher since being drafted, posting ground ball rates of 68% and 64% in the previous two seasons.

Newcomer Ryan Hendrix joined Soid Marquez and Dauri Moreta at 61% on the season. Hendrix was the teams 5th round draft pick in 2016 and made an early impression, posting a 3.57 ERA between Billings and Dayton without allowing a home run in 35.1 innings. Marquez had some struggles in 2016. He posted a 5.66 ERA in 35.0 innings, but only allowed one home run. Moreta made his stateside debut in 2016 and was dominant, posting a 1.89 ERA between the two rookie ball clubs. He didn’t allow many balls to be put in play, striking out 56 batters in 33.1 innings, but when hitters did make contact they put it on the ground a lot.

Here’s the list for all 50 of the relievers on the season.

[private_subscriber]

[/private_subscriber]