A mechanical issue<\/a> led to less ride on the pitch and batters really keyed in on that pitch. Thankfully, the rest of his secondary pitches didn\u2019t lose much effectiveness and all the underlying data looked good. His changeup and sweeper, in particular, have been fantastic pitches, but his repertoire is deep enough, he can keep batters off balance in any count. The key, then, is figuring out his mechanics to regain the ride on his four-seam fastball.<\/p>\nGame 2 Pitching MatchupPitcherIPK%BB%HR\/FB%GB%ERAFIPGavin Williams167.224.6%11.8%14.4%44.7%3.064.39George Kirby12626.1%5.5%12.8%44.1%4.213.37RHP Gavin WilliamsPitchUsage vRHBUsage vLHBVelocityStuff+Whiff+BIP+xwOBAFour-seam30.9%43.1%96.699106910.383Sinker12.0%1.7%95.99559880.352Cutter14.1%14.0%91.879781200.378Curveball9.9%32.8%82.0109108870.238Slider33.1%8.4%86.5114133930.245<\/p>\n
Gavin Williams ended last season on an extremely lucky run. From June through the end of the season, his BABIP allowed was just .221 which led to a 2.50 ERA that far outpaced his 4.27 FIP. Most of his underlying peripherals stayed pretty stable through the season, but a ton of good batted ball luck allowed him to be a key piece of the Guardians\u2019 playoff run in September. He added a sweeper to his pitch mix last year and it returned a 44.0% whiff rate. That gives him two excellent breaking balls to attack batters with alongside a hard fastball. The issue is his command. His walk rate is well below average and it\u2019s pretty shocking he was able to get away with all those baserunners without giving up a ton more runs.<\/p>\n
Game 3 Pitching MatchupPitcherIPK%BB%HR\/FB%GB%ERAFIPJoey Cantillo95.126.9%10.5%11.0%40.8%3.213.55Bryan Woo186.227.1%4.9%12.8%40.8%2.943.47LHP Joey CantilloPitchUsage vRHBUsage vLHBVelocityStuff+Whiff+BIP+xwOBAFour-seam40.4%46.0%91.790681000.389Changeup34.4%20.8%78.31131591230.216Curveball21.3%12.4%77.311376790.206Slider4.0%20.8%85.18386730.347<\/p>\n
Joey Cantillo spent last year split between the bullpen and the rotation. Once he made the move to starting in July, things really took off for him; he posted a 2.96 ERA and a 3.21 FIP across 13 starts down the stretch. His calling card is a phenomenal changeup that produced a 49.4% whiff rate last year! His two breaking balls are okay too \u2014 his curveball is the better of the two but he was testing a new grip on his slider this spring to hopefully increase that pitch\u2019s effectiveness. His command is his weakness, though his walk rate improved slightly after joining the rotation last year. With a role in the rotation secured to start this season, he\u2019s well positioned to take a big step forward if he can get his errant command under control.<\/p>\n
Game 4 Pitching MatchupPitcherIPK%BB%HR\/FB%GB%ERAFIPSlade Cecconi13220.0%5.9%15.5%41.3%4.304.64Luis Castillo180.221.7%6.2%10.5%41.3%3.543.88RHP Slade CecconiPitchUsage vRHBUsage vLHBVelocityStuff+Whiff+BIP+xwOBAFour-seam39.0%47.8%94.39084910.388Sinker17.7%5.2%93.69333980.402Cutter2.9%3.2%88.8Changeup1.4%12.9%84.39378670.432Curveball9.7%22.4%75.51001011180.228Slider29.4%8.5%84.295108940.299<\/p>\n
Slade Cecconi came to the Guardians last offseason in the December 2024 trade that sent Josh Naylor to Arizona. He had a decent year in Cleveland, managing to stick in the rotation for the entire year after spending the first two years of his career as a swingman in Arizona\u2019s bullpen. He doesn\u2019t have outstanding stuff and won\u2019t overpower batters, but he does have excellent command and a deep repertoire to keep batters off balance. His two breaking balls are his best pitches and he added a cutter and sinker to his arsenal last year. His fastball is pretty lackluster and that\u2019s where his whole approach breaks down. If he\u2019s not keeping batters honest with his secondary pitches, they can key in on his heater and do some real damage.<\/p>\n
AL West Standings (2025)TeamW-LW%Games BehindRun DiffMariners – y90-690.566\u2014+72Astros85-740.5355.0+21Rangers80-790.50310.0+79Athletics75-840.47215.0-84Angels71-880.44719.0-164<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The weight of expectations is now a burden the Seattle Mariners must carry with them this year. To…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4,54376],"class_list":["post-645008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-guardians","tag-mlb","tag-seattle-mariners-analysis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116296854103660599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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