There’s no solution to say this with out sounding snarky, so I’m not going to attempt: The Oakland A’s, who have been purported to be abysmal, have shocked the baseball world by being merely mediocre. They’re in third place within the AL West, with a full sequence’ price of buffer between them and their pursuers. The Angels are struggling the mom of all post-breakup hangovers, and it seems that the Astros have lastly been caught by Mephistopheles. Experiences say a sinister-looking goateed man has been seen pounding on the door to Minute Maid Park, saying, “I gave you your two World Sequence, now I’m right here in your soul!”
Nothing gold can keep.
The important thing — or not less than one key — to Oakland’s shocking ascent to averageness has been an outstanding bullpen. Nearer Mason Miller has grabbed many of the headlines; some individuals are saying he’s the perfect reliever in baseball now. I don’t know if that assertion will maintain up over a full season, however the hyperbole will proceed till the FIP doesn’t begin with a minus signal.
Miller’s emergence has sucked up all of the air within the room — insofar as there was ever a ton of air within the room for discussing Oakland’s bullpen — to the detriment of his teammates. So I needed to focus on Lucas Erceg, who’s been excellent this season, and can be form of bizarre.
The very first thing to find out about Erceg is that he was, till very lately, a 3rd baseman. As a sophomore at Cal, Erceg hit .303/.357/.502 with 11 dwelling runs in 57 video games, however was dominated academically ineligible the next season, which kicked off a circuitous path to the majors. First: A 12 months at NAIA Menlo Faculty, alma mater of former MLB… standout might be too robust a phrase, even when he gained a World Sequence and made an All-Star crew… Gino Cimoli. Erceg went within the second spherical to Milwaukee, turning into Menlo’s highest draft decide ever within the course of, and slowly labored his approach by way of the minors with a sequence of unremarkable batting traces.
In 2021, the Brewers gave Erceg, who’d pitched often at Cal, a shot as a reliever, and by that summer time he was ok to get an honorable point out on Milwaukee’s prospect record. (Even when it was just one sentence in a piece labeled “Arm Power.”)
In 2023, the A’s — who’ve had some success with changing faculty infielders into aid pitchers, or who not less than introduced Sean Doolittle by way of — bought Erceg from Milwaukee. This furthers my long-held perception that everybody who performs for the Brewers will at some point play for the A’s, and vice-versa. We’d save quite a lot of problem by merging the 2 franchises and having them play on a barnstorming circuit known as the John Jaha Freeway.
However I digress.
Erceg’s floor stats look fairly pedestrian proper now, however about half of his 3.38 ERA comes from one three-run blown save towards the Rangers on Might 6. On the finish of April, he was on a run of 9 consecutive scoreless appearances, the final eight of which have been additionally hitless. It’s not as spectacular as a hidden good recreation, however Erceg did throw a hidden no-hitter (with 13 strikeouts and three walks on 120 pitches) from April 11 to April 30. I remorse not attending to this subject two weeks in the past, as a result of I’d’ve hammered the “extra like Lucas Goose-egg” joke till you all began sending me rotten greens within the mail.
Puns and weird growth plan withstanding, there are two issues I need to spotlight about Erceg: His uncommon repertoire and the numerous step ahead he’s made in lacking bats from final 12 months to this 12 months.
As you would possibly anticipate from a conversion undertaking, there are components of Erceg’s recreation that is perhaps thought-about crude. He’s a hard-throwing one-inning reliever, to start out, and even after taking a considerable step ahead on this division, his stroll charge this 12 months is 11.9%. That’s within the “survivable, however not supreme” bucket for a pitcher, even a reliever.
However, Erceg has a respectable four-pitch repertoire. And this isn’t some fastball-slider man who has a show-me curveball and a changeup he often throws to opposite-handed batters. He throws 4 pitches between 18.9% and 30.5% of the time, and whereas he has specialist choices to each righties and lefties, he throws his four-seamer and slider towards everybody, giving him a three-pitch repertoire towards any opponent.
There are 15 pitchers this 12 months who qualify for Baseball Savant’s leaderboards, throw not less than 4 pitches 15% of the time, and have not more than a 20-percentage level unfold between their most-used pitch and their least-used pitch. (Erceg’s unfold is 11.6 proportion factors, the third-lowest of his cohort.) Of these 15 pitchers, 10 have thrown most or all of this season out of the rotation. That is smart, as a result of the extra instances a pitcher goes by way of the lineup, the extra pitches he wants.
Listed here are the 5 relievers, with the variety of pitches they throw, the unfold between their highest and lowest pitch utilization charge, and the typical velocity of their hardest fastball. (Hardest, as a result of all 5 of those pitchers throw not less than two kinds of fastballs.)
The 4-Pitch Relievers
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
These guys aren’t soft-tossers — Brent Suter got here up within the web I initially forged earlier than I narrowed the parameters some — however Erceg is on a unique planet, velocity-wise. His changeup is averaging 91.4 mph, which is simply 0.3 mph slower than Farmer’s sinker. That changeup is getting knocked round — 5 of the seven extra-base hits Erceg has allowed this season have come off the changeup, together with his solely dwelling run — but it surely’s additionally lacking bats at a charge of 37.5%.
In reality, I’m going to mix arbitrary-endpoint theater and small-sample-size theater to present you a enjoyable reality: By the weekend, solely three pitchers in baseball have been operating whiff charges of not less than 28% on 4 totally different pitches they’d thrown not less than 49 instances: Zack Wheeler, Pablo López, and Erceg.
Now to the actually enjoyable half. Erceg has skilled an enormous uptick in chase charge, from 23.2% to 31.0%, whereas on the identical time decreasing his in-zone swing charge from 62.9% to 56.1% and his in-zone contact charge from 79.3% to 67.2%.
In different phrases, hitters are swinging much less at pitches within the zone, and after they swing they’re not making as a lot contact. And concurrently they’re chasing pitches a 3rd greater than they did final 12 months. It’s not instantly clear to me why that is taking place; Erceg’s in-zone charge is down a pair proportion factors, and whereas his general opponent swing charge is up, it’s by about two swings at this level within the season. That’s nothing.
As with all reliever efficiency earlier than the All-Star break, it bears monitoring earlier than we begin to rely on it going ahead. However for now, Erceg is getting whiffs on 4 totally different pitches, and is among the finest relievers in baseball each at lacking bats and avoiding laborious contact. Not unhealthy for a transformed infielder, and at finest the second-most necessary reliever on the Oakland A’s.