The Cincinnati Reds had 28 pitchers make at least 10 starts in the season this year at the minor league level. I’ve gone through the game-by-game data and tallied up the information on their pitches, strikes thrown, swinging strikes and strikes looking.
Throwing strikes is the most important thing that a pitcher is going to be able to do. The average big league pitcher throws a strike about 65% of the time. Anything that’s not a hit batter, catchers interference or a a ball goes down as a strike in this data. I left out any and all plays that resulted in contact, focusing on the number of strikes thrown and then the ones that didn’t result in the batter doing anything with them.
A pitcher that’s racking up plenty of swinging strikes probably had outstanding stuff or very good deception (which tends to let stuff play up beyond it’s “raw” grade). The higher up the ladder one gets in the minor league chain the more impressive a swinging strike rate is, as hitters are more advanced and don’t expand the strikezone nearly as much.
When looking at all of the data, at least in the Reds system, no one who was a starter for most of the season in the upper levels of the minor leagues was in the top five when it comes to swinging strike rate, and only Barrett Astin (20.3%) saw any time above Advanced-A from that top five. Ismael Guillon (23.7%) and Tony Santillan (23.2%) were at the top of the organization when it comes to swinging strike rate. Amir Garrett topped the list for guys from Double-A and above who were starters most of the season, coming in at 18.9%. His rate in Pensacola was much higher than it was in Louisville (21.6% in Pensacola, 15.8% with Louisville).
Ian Kahaloa and Tim Aldeman both had an overall strikes thrown rate of 67.6%. Three pitchers wound up below 60% for the year. When it comes to strikes looking one guy stood out from the crowd. Tyler Mahle had a 32.1% strikes looking rate. Only Scott Moss was above 28% from the rest of the group and he was at 28.4% overall.
If you are interested in the numbers for all of the starters in the organization you can see the list below as a subscriber. If you’re not a subscriber, what are you waiting for? The subscriptions keep the site afloat during the offseason when traffic slows down and advertising revenue is literally cut in half (or more). We will take a look at the relievers later this week.
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Here’s the entire set of 28 starters who made at least 10 starts. The number of innings may not match up with their season total as a few teams in the minor league still don’t have pitch inputs for their games, so there were a handful of guys who lost out on a game or two from their sample. All games in the Arizona Rookie League are missing this data, and I also didn’t include any big league action for those pitchers who also saw time in the Major Leagues. K% is simply strike percentage (Strikes/Pitches), K_L% is strikes looking rate of total strikes thrown and K_S% is the strikes swinging rate out of total strikes thrown.
| Pitcher | IP | K% | K_L% | K_S% |
| Ismael Guillon | 90.67 | 62.4% | 25.8% | 23.7% |
| Tony Santillan | 69.33 | 61.7% | 21.7% | 23.2% |
| Tanner Rainey | 103.33 | 59.4% | 24.2% | 20.9% |
| Jesus Reyes | 93.67 | 60.3% | 21.1% | 20.5% |
| Barrett Astin | 103.33 | 64.8% | 25.5% | 20.3% |
| Amir Garrett | 144.67 | 62.1% | 26.6% | 18.9% |
| Ian Kahaloa | 44.67 | 67.7% | 23.1% | 18.2% |
| Robert Stephenson | 136.67 | 60.4% | 23.8% | 18.1% |
| Moises Nova | 50.33 | 57.4% | 26.0% | 17.6% |
| Jose Lopez | 142.0 | 65.8% | 24.5% | 17.1% |
| Andrew Jordan | 54.67 | 63.2% | 24.1% | 17.1% |
| Seth Varner | 131.67 | 66.2% | 22.4% | 16.6% |
| Cody Reed | 73.0 | 66.4% | 25.1% | 16.5% |
| Sal Romano | 156.0 | 64.3% | 27.5% | 15.9% |
| Scott Moss | 38.33 | 63.1% | 28.4% | 15.6% |
| Nick Travieso | 117.33 | 61.0% | 23.6% | 15.2% |
| Ty Boyles | 121.67 | 64.2% | 23.8% | 15.2% |
| Jackson Stephens | 151.33 | 63.8% | 27.7% | 14.5% |
| Tim Adleman | 56.67 | 67.7% | 22.1% | 14.3% |
| Tejay Antone | 156.33 | 65.3% | 23.9% | 14.3% |
| Keury Mella | 128.0 | 64.1% | 25.0% | 14.0% |
| Jacob Constante | 108.0 | 60.7% | 25.4% | 13.9% |
| Tyler Mahle | 150.67 | 65.4% | 32.1% | 13.5% |
| Jonathon Crawford | 22.67 | 59.5% | 24.1% | 13.4% |
| Wendolyn Bautista | 78.33 | 65.8% | 24.4% | 13.2% |
| Jon Moscot | 49.67 | 62.6% | 26.7% | 13.1% |
| Austin Orewiler | 128.0 | 62.3% | 26.0% | 13.0% |
| Rookie Davis | 125.0 | 65.9% | 24.3% | 13.0% |
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