Zac Thornton continued his excellent start to his career with the Mets on Monday night against the Atlanta Braves, allowing three earned runs in 6.1 innings of an eventual 14-3 win for New York.
The left-hander is now 2-1 with a 2.43 ERA (0.91 WHIP) in five starts and 29.2 innings pitched this season, and although he's a top pitching prospect in the Mets organization and just 24 years old, Thornton's repertoire doesn't include the typical blistering fastball and wicked secondary pitch that most young pitching prospects have.
Instead, Thornton relies mostly on a cutter that averages around 87 mph and his two-seam fastball that sits between 89-92 mph while mixing in a variety of other pitches, none of which get above 94 mph on a consistent basis.
Interim manager Andy Green admitted that it's not "the traditional way" that most front-line starters attack hitters in this day and age of high velocity and spin rate, but the results so far speak for themselves.
"It's good stuff," Green said about Thornton's ******* ortment of pitches. "We live in a world where we don't define stuff as good unless it's 95+ anymore and that's unfortunate because the cutter really is tough for righties to see and react to and the more you have to think about pitches coming in on your hands, the more you're gonna pull off of everything else that works away from you.
#innings #pitching
The left-hander is now 2-1 with a 2.43 ERA (0.91 WHIP) in five starts and 29.2 innings pitched this season, and although he's a top pitching prospect in the Mets organization and just 24 years old, Thornton's repertoire doesn't include the typical blistering fastball and wicked secondary pitch that most young pitching prospects have.
Instead, Thornton relies mostly on a cutter that averages around 87 mph and his two-seam fastball that sits between 89-92 mph while mixing in a variety of other pitches, none of which get above 94 mph on a consistent basis.
Interim manager Andy Green admitted that it's not "the traditional way" that most front-line starters attack hitters in this day and age of high velocity and spin rate, but the results so far speak for themselves.
"It's good stuff," Green said about Thornton's ******* ortment of pitches. "We live in a world where we don't define stuff as good unless it's 95+ anymore and that's unfortunate because the cutter really is tough for righties to see and react to and the more you have to think about pitches coming in on your hands, the more you're gonna pull off of everything else that works away from you.
#innings #pitching
3 months ago
