Burke Badenhop Preview

The Cubs will try and bounce back Saturday against sinker throwing righty Burke Badenhop. Badenhop will be starting for the just the second time in 2009 for the Marlins. His last start was a five inning win against the Phillies, in May. I don't think this guy is stretched out all the way, but he has put in a few multiple inning relief appearances in July.

Badenhop was drafted by the Tigers out of Bowling Green and broke into the Majors last year for Florida. He's 6'5" tall, a native of Atlanta and has never pitched out of the bullpen in the minor leagues. He seems to have adapted will in 2009, and is even having better success against lefties, reversing his platoon split from 2008 (for whatever that's worth).

Badenhop is a four-pitch pitcher. His main pitch is a two-seam sinker (F2) which is complemented by the occasional four-seam fastball (F4), a change-up (CH) and a sweeping slider (SL).

Both fastballs average around 89 mph, the change down at 82 (good enough gap) and the slider 79. His pitch mix is dominated by the sinker, but he doesn't give the same look, otherwise, against lefties and righties.



The breaking ball doesn't sink much, "rising" against gravity two inches more than an average slider, but breaking across the plate an extra four or five inches. It's possibly a slurvey slider, but he throws at a low enough arm angle that the spin creates a more sweeping, and less sinking, path.







Wandering through Badenhop's pitch data and results, I noticed a couple things about him.

Badenhop uses his sinker against lefties a lot, but not with the same success he has against righties. He wisely avoids using the slider against lefties, as they kill it, but has his best success with the fastball and change-up.

Against lefties, Badenhop's fastball is the one he's most likely to throw in the zone, and it's his best fly ball pitch. His change-up is most effective against lefties in terms of whiff rate and ground outs.

Against righties, the sinker Badenhop throws does very well. He throws it for strikes and gets a ton of ground balls (> 70%). His slider is also very effective against righties, but has just a 10% ground ball rate (it jumps to 50% in its limited use against lefties). It's not just an extreme fly ball pitch for Badenhop against righties, it's also his best at missing bats.