Statcast Standouts From Brewers' Second Spring Training Game

[Jake McKibbin]

The Brewers just played their first Statcast-tracked game this spring, giving us rare insight into some intriguing minor-leaguers. Who stood out from the crowd?

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Statcast ballparks bring a lot of entertainment for baseball nerds, especially in spring training. It gives an idea of who's feeling hot, who's not—and even more intriguingly, it lets us see metrics on minor-league pitchers that we may not get for the rest of the season. This could bring all kinds of fun, from Jesus Made's quality of contact, to Bishop Letson's fastball, Eric Bitonti's bat speed, Braylon Payne's sprint speed and more—if they can get playing time in publicly-distributed Statcast environments. While none of the above played in yesterday's game, it's worth keeping an eye on them, as well as the intriguing standouts below;

Logan Henderson

Logan Henderson's four-seam fastball was lurking in the 91-92 mph range throughout most of his 2024 season. It took a leap yesterday, surpassing 95 mph on several occasions, and with his electric combination of low release slot and high induced vertical break, it looked very effective. If he leaves it over the heart of the plate, it can see some hard contact, with hitters traditionally seeing it quite well. We don't have arm-angle data during spring, but the best comps for Henderson's fastball as he threw it yesterday would seem to be Christian Scott of the Mets and Bryan Woo of the Mariners. Those heaters find the dead zone a bit, movement-wise, so Henderson's command will be paramount.

More interesting are the cutter and slider. Henderson has predominantly been a two-pitch pitcher in the minors, with his fastball/changeup pairing doing some heavy damage, but to succeed as a starter, he will need a third offering. The slider is a solid gyro option, while the cutter might be a variation to keep hitters off his main fastball—but I'm hoping to see him throw a lot more of these in his next spring training outings.

Craig Yoho
Yoho is a darling of the Brewers' 2023 draft class who looks poised to break into the bullpen during 2025 (health permitting).

Yoho didn't use his slider, but showcased how deceptive and Wiffle Ball-like his changeup really is, coming away with two strikeouts. Yoho's arm angle is predisposed to horizontal movement profiles, and boy, does he make the most of that. That cutter could be an intriguing link pitch to boost the deception when his sinker, changeup and slider all boomerang away from each other; it bears monitoring.

Chandler Welch
Chandler Welch is another interesting profile, this time from the 2024 draft. Leaning on an 88-mph cutter/slider from a low arm slot, Welch got two whiffs (both on the slider) and prevented hard contact in his brief inning of work.

The slider/cutter should work well, but he may need more out of his fastballs and sweeper to be more than a bullpen arm. The low arm slot gives both a chance to succeed, if he can find an extra tick or two of velocity as the season goes on. I'd expect to see him breeze through Low A and spend most of the year at High A and Double A this season.

Tyson Hardin
Tyson Hardin is another pick out of the 2024 draft, claimed in the 12th round out of Mississippi State. Showcasing a strong four-seamer/cutter mix that graded out exceptionally well in Jeremy Maschino's model, again due to a low arm slot and a real feel for generating spin on both offerings, Hardin worked out of a mess of his own making.

We'll need to see more from his breaking balls, though his sole curveball did grade out nicely, and there was extreme horizontal break on his changeup. The stuff grades out better than you could have expected for a 12th-round pick, and is certainly exciting within the Brewers' pitching development system.

Honorable mentions include:

• Ernesto Martinez Jr.: Showed off 83-mph bat speed (league average is around 74 mph) in launching a 104.4-mph flyout that he didn't even barrel (although he also had five whiffs in his eight swings).
• Oliver Dunn with three swings, no whiffs and two 100-mph+ lineouts (and with the same bat speed, which suggests his back issue is no longer a problem)
• Luis Lara with two hard-hit balls (95+ mph), against a sinker and a four-seam fastball

Did you notice anything else in the Brewers' first statcast-tracked game of 2025? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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[Joseph Zarr]

Welch didn't even throw his best pitch if that read out is accurate. His curveball, by my eyes (granted only 1 2/3 2024 IP post-draft 😆), is his clear most dangerous offering. Nasty pitch. Sweeper is a newish offering (?) and he does (did?) have a seldom used change-up. I wonder aloud if they are junking that for the sweeper?

In his brief appearances with Carolina at Low-A, Hardin also made 'messes'. His control was an issue last summer. I am hoping he has tightened things up. He has what I would call young expression on his tools. His mechanics appeared unrefined when I watched him. Hoping he is more dialed in to start 2025 but this outing gives me slight pause.

[otion881]

Really cool to see these numbers coming in early. Henderson's fastball jump to the 95s is wild, and I'm excited to see how guys like Yoho and Welch develop.

[biedergb]

Henderson with a 94-95 mph Fastball, a very good change up and a solid 3rd pitch goes from a middle relief / borderline 5th starter profile to a back to middle of the rotation profile. That would be great.

 

[Terry]

I got a few observations.
1. Ashby had a new cutter and his sinkers have more drop.
2. Wolfram has more rise on his 4-seam and more horizontal movement on his 2-seam. (More separations between both pitches.)

[Sugarrayray]

Yes!!! Yes!! I just completely love the Brewers pitching development department!! Yes!!

As far as Henderson, the one cutter he threw looked great and got the weak pop up he was looking for. His slider looked like he had very little control over it, but had much more impressive sharp downer break than I was expecting. Very pleased.

Now for his velocity - I’m happy to see it, but I presumed it was just because he was pitching short relief instead of his normal starting situation. As a starter I expect him to be 91-94, as a reliever I expect 93-96. Doesn’t that sound about right?

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, Terry said:

I got a few observations.
1. Ashby had a new cutter and his sinkers have more drop.
2. Wolfram has more rise on his 4-seam and more horizontal movement on his 2-seam. (More separations between both pitches.)

Assume you're saying that the 2 pitches savant called FB were actually cutters and one of them just backed up on him?

[Terry]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

Assume you're saying that the 2 pitches savant called FB were actually cutters and one of them just backed up on him?

Oops, both of them could be just wild overthrown pitches tho, not necessarily a cutter.