Another season, another beginning of The Ricky Tiedemann Report.
On Friday afternoon in the first game of a double header, the 21-year-old left-handed pitcher made his second start of the season. Tiedemann finished with a line of 1.2 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 0 K, which brought his season ERA to 6.23. Tiedemann threw 44 total pitches with only 19 of them for strikes, or 43.2%.
So obviously, this isn’t great. After his debut season in 2022 where he only walked 9.6% of batters, it skyrocketed to 12.2% in 2023 and is beginning to look like something he’ll need to fix, and quickly. So far this season, he walked six batters facing just 24 batters for a 25 BB%, as well as a 12.5 K%. The stuff is elite, but the lack of command and control may make his arrival in the big leagues take longer.
Ricky Tiedemann could not find the zone at all in his AAA start today as he issued 4 BB and had a 22.7 Zone%
Pitch shapes looked good, but the command was non-existent. pic.twitter.com/VLyaQt7C6R
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) April 5, 2024
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Diving deeper into the stats, Tiedemann’s fastball averaged 95.5 mph, maxing out at 96.9 mph and the minimum velocity was 93.4 mph on the heater. One again, his velocity and thus his effectiveness could have been hindered as it was only 5 °C in Worcester on Friday. The fastball itself had eight total swings, with only one of them being a swing and miss.
Tiedemann only threw four changeups to make up 9% of his pitch count. It averaged 84.3 mph, which is good separation from the fastball velocity, but only generated one total swing. The slider averaged 81.1 mph and generated one whiff in four total swings.
All in all, it wasn’t a great start for the young left-handed pitcher, as this was the second straight game where he lacked command and control of his pitches. He’ll get his third start next week as the Buffalo Bisons host the Rochester Red Wings starting on Tuesday.
Hopefully, Tiedemann can iron out some of those concerns in that game and return to the form that made him the Blue Jays top prospect.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Brennan_L_D.
ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO
