Magicgames II » Boyd became an extreme fly ball pitcher this ye

ar and made it work. At least in Comerica Park."Matt Boyd remained a bit of an enigma in 2018. Despite a serious loss of velocity that persisted into the summer months http://www.marlinsfanproshop.com/authentic-starlin-castro-jersey , Boyd pitched well early on before struggling in June and never really getting on a roll again. For the third straight year, he alternated a few months of dominance with long patches of mediocrity. Overall, Boyd threw 170 1鈦? innings in 2018, putting up a 4.39 ERA, with a 4.45 FIP. That’s excellent value for a player making slightly more than the league minimum. For the second consecutive year, FanGraphs WAR (fWAR) valued him as a league average pitcher. He continues to be a veritable workhorse by today’s standards, topping 160 innings, minor leagues included, for the fourth straight year. There was also a new wrinkle in his game in the form of a drastically overhauled slider. In 2017, former Tigers’ pitching coach Rich Dubee had Boyd, as well as several other Tigers pitchers, trying to throw a harder, late breaking slider. It didn’t work out so well. This spring, pitching coach Chris Bosio reversed course on that project, and Boyd was way ahead of him in offseason training with Driveline Baseball. He took about six miles per hour off the pitch, altered his grip, and threw a sweeping, 80-81 mph slider that proved the best breaking ball he’s had in his entire career.With his shiny new slider, Boyd went on to post his best ever strikeout rate. He trimmed his walk rate compared to the year prior as well. His sinker, curveball Wei-Yin Chen Jersey , and changeup took a backseat, as roughly 70 percent of his pitch mix was either the fourseam fastball or the slider. While his velocity was down substantially early in the season, the heat slowly returned until he was throwing as hard as ever by August. Boyd continued to show slight variations in timing and arm angle with his fastball, using deception to help it play up to hitters. As a result he held opponents to a pretty meager .298 wOBA against the fourseamer. However, there is still one bright red flag in his numbers.One big stat: Home ERA 2.63/Road ERA 5.89As it turns out, despite the improved strikeout-to-walk numbers for Matt Boyd, he was living dangerously. His homeruns per nine innings (HR/9), jumped from 1.20 in 2017, which is basically league average, to 1.43 in 2018. Not a dramatic change, but one that expresses itself in the fact that Boyd struggled mightily outside the spacious confines of Comerica Park. He pitched just 13 more innings on the road, but he allowed 19 home runs, as compared to just eight in his home ballpark.There’s a good reason for this. Boyd turned into an extreme flyball pitcher in 2018. He was second to only Justin Verlander in flyball percentage among qualified starters this season, turning in a 49.9 percent rate, to Verlander’s 51.4 percent mark. Boyd has never been a groundball pitcher, but these results were extreme even for him. He leaned into those fly ball tendencies and made it work, but that’s a profile that would scare teams in more home run friendly parks. The problem, of course, is that Matt Boyd isn’t Justin Verlander.Verlander had the best strikeout rate in the game at 34.8 percent. Boyd struck out a solid 22.4 percent, 33rd in baseball this year. Verlander had the fourth best walk rate in the game Jeff Locke Jersey , while Boyd was 29th. Those are encouraging numbers from the Tigers’ lefty, but he doesn’t get quite the amount of weak contact that someone like Verlander produces and he allows a lot more balls in play. Producing a high volume of fly balls is a dangerous way for a pitcher to make a living in the current run scoring environment.The fact that Boyd’s home and road splits was so dramatic is a bit concerning as well. It’s not hard to imagine that Comerica’s large centerfield corralled some would-be home run balls, while in myriad parks on the road, those same deep fly balls made it over the fences. His fly ball spray chart gives some support to that notion. And if that’s the case he could easily pitch just as well next year, yet look like a bit of a gas can.It’s not too hard to see how things could’ve gone worse for Matt Boyd. With his total flyballs for the season overlaid over Comerica Park’s dimensions, we see a lot of deep flyouts. It’s hard to tell how much Comerica Park helped him overall, but it’s clear he walked a fine line out there at times and had plenty of loud flyouts. If you’re curious about that peculiar single deep down the first base line, it was a 354 foot wall-banger off the bat of Kansas City Royals catcher, Salvador Perez, on August 28th in Kauffman Stadium.In the end, Boyd remains a bit of a wild card this winter. If he’s got his fastball velocity back and carries that, and his revamped slider, into 2019, there is a chance we could see him take the next step into a dependable mid-rotation starter posting 3-4 WAR seasons through his prime years. However, he already posted the best strikeout and walk rates of career in 2018, and was still a league average innings eater. The possibility that more fly balls leave the park next season is compelling enough to worry that perhaps 2018 was as good as it’s going to get. Matt Boyd is still under team control for four more years. He won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season.. A cheap, controllable, left-handed starter carries plenty of value despite the pedestrian results. However, it’s probably not enough to draw good prospects out of a team interested in Boyd’s services. He may be at peak value already, but if this is it Cameron Maybin Jersey , the potential return still isn’t enough to forego giving him another season in the Olde English D in which to try and level up his game. Unless the Tigers can really compel a nice prospect package for Boyd, perhaps by combining him with someone like Shane Greene, he’s probably fine right where he is. The Tigers will look to him in 2019 to provide depth and durability to a rotation that needs all the help it can get. Maybe, just maybe, his best years are still ahead. PHOENIX (AP) — Carson Kelly watched teammate Eduardo Escobar get thrown out at home plate on Nick Ahmed’s hit in the bottom of the ninth inning. Kelly was on deck, and the play served as motivation for the Arizona Diamondbacks catcher.Kelly then drilled a single into the left field corner, scoring Ahmed with two outs to lift the Diamondbacks over the struggling Boston Red Sox 5-4 on Saturday night.“You want to get it done even more.Nick did a great job. We were that close,” Kelly said. “It gave me that little extra boost to maybe hit it over the third baseman.”Boston has dropped three straight and is 2-8 overall, a lousy start to its World Series championship defense.Colten Brewer (0-1) allowed consecutive singles to Escobar, Ahmed and Kelly in the ninth. Right fielder Mookie Betts threw out Escobar at home on Ahmed’s hit, but Kelly’s liner to left allowed Ahmed to score easily.Ahmed had taken second on the throw home from Betts.“I thought I threw some good pitches in there, but they were ready for them, I think,” Brewer said. “I threw (Kelly) a two-seam in and he just turned on it.”Kelly had two hits and three RBIs. The game-ending hit was the first of his career.“Your heart stops when you have a runner thrown out at home plate … but that didn’t stop us,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “I was really proud the way we kept pressing on.”Greg Holland (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win.The Diamondbacks led 4-3 after two innings, but neither team scored again until the seventh. Jackie Bradley Jr. drew a leadoff walk against Yoshihisa Hirano and went to third on J.D. Martinez’s pinch-hit single. Andrew Benintendi drew a walk, and Betts drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly.The Red Sox loaded the bases against one of Arizona’s top relievers, Archie Bradley, but he got Xander Bogaerts to ground into an inning-ending fielder’s choice.Boston starter David Price worked six innings, allowing four runs and seven hits with four strikeouts.Luke Weaver improved from his last start for Arizona Lewis Brinson Jersey , giving up three runs, five hits and two walks with four strikeouts over five innings. Weaver yielded four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Dodgers on March 30.The Red Sox scored the game’s first three runs in the second. Bogaerts led off with a walk and went to third with heads-up baserunning on a single to shallow center by Rafael Devers. Eduardo Nunez’s groundout scored Bogaerts, and one out later, Devers came home on Price’s single past first base. That was Price’s first career RBI and his fourth hit in 50 at-bats.Benintendi hit a ground-rule double to center field, scoring Christian Vazquez to make it 3-0.The Diamondbacks took the lead in the next half-inning. Ahmed singled in David Peralta from third base with one out, and Kelly followed with a two-run double. Adam Jones singled in Kelly, who crossed home before a close play on Jones at second base. Jones was first called safe at second, but the Red Sox challenged and the play was reviewed and overturned.“That’s been one of my Achilles’ heels for a lot of my career, having that one tough inning, and it cost me a ballgame,” Price said. “We just need to get back home, and our fans will remind us how good we are.”Red Sox manager Alex Cora tried to keep things positive.“It’s not perfect right now, obviously, but the quality of the at-bats were better today,” Cora said, vowing the defending champs will be fine. “They kept fighting. … There’s no frustration. We just keep grinding.”ROOF ITThe retractable roof at Chase Field opened with no problems as the top of the fourth inning got underway. The roof malfunctioned Friday during the Diamondbacks’ home opener.TRAINER’S ROOMRed Sox: INF-OF Brock Holt and LHP Brian Johnson were placed on the 10-day injured list. Holt has a scratched cornea in his right eye, and Johnson has left elbow inflammation. … INF Tzu-Wei Lin and RHP Marcus Walden were called up from Triple-A Pawtucket. Lin grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth.Diamondbacks: LHP T.J. McFarland (shoulder) threw 20 pitches in a simulated game and Lovullo was encouraged. … RHP Taijuan Walker is set for a 40-pitch bullpen as he comes back from elbow surgery a little less than a year ago.UP NEXTDiamondbacks RHP Merrill Kelly (1-0) is set for his second start of the season Sunday against Boston. He allowed three runs in six innings at San Diego to earn the win. Cora said RHP Hector Velazquez, who has appeared in three games as a reliever this season, will start for Boston.