NEWSLETTER
Last season the pitcher who induced groundballs at the highest rate in the Major Leagues was Dallas Keuchel of Houston (67.1%). I mention that simply to establish a benchmark. In general, I think we can call a groundball rate over 50% to be pretty good.
Keep in mind as well that a groundball is almost always a win for the pitcher. In general, a pitcher can’t control what happens once a ball is hit into play. If the outfielder misplays an easy out into a double without committing an error, that shows up on the stat sheet for the pitcher. That’s baseball. But what the pitcher can do, other than strike everyone out, is induce groundballs. Groundballs are rarely extra base hits and almost never homers. The ability to get grounders is a very good thing to have.
Among those pitchers with at least 30 innings in the minors, there are quite a few Cubs appearing high on the GB% leaderboard. In Iowa, it is Seth Frankoff (54.2%), who currently ranks sixth in the PCL. Interestingly, the Mariners have the top three on that leaderboard.
In Double A Tennessee, Preston Morrison (56.0%) ranks fourth, and Zach Hedges (52.5%) is only half a dozen slots below him.
Three Cubs rank in the Top 6 in the Carolina League, starting with Casey Bloomquist (56.6%) in third. The other two are pitching prospect you should know about: Justin Steele (55.8%) in fourth and Tom Hatch (55.3%) in sixth.
And then we have the Midwest League. The South Bend Cubs have the best pitcher in the league by ground ball rate: Bryan Hudson (62.1%).
I don’t think it is accident that the Cubs are consistently placing guys at or near the top of that particular leaderboard. It is a deliberate combination of scouting and coaching that is doing it, and it is a philosophy that I think we will see yet again in the draft in a couple weeks.
Triple A: Iowa Cubs
Reno 7, Iowa 6
The Cubs led going into the eighth inning, but the bullpen couldn’t hang on.
Double A: Tennessee Smokies
Tennesee 3, Biloxi 2
This was yet another well pitched game for the Smokies.
High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans
Carolina 5, Myrtle Beach 3
The Pelicans had almost as many errors (2) as runs.
Low A: South Bend Cubs
The Cubs were rained out.
Other Notes
