Moylan Poised For A Big Year

Hello again everyone! I’m once again coming to you from the southland in Spring. It’s been a beautiful day here in Sumter. It’s too bad that the same thing couldn’t be said about our nation’s Capitol, as the weather there was as ugly as the outcome of the game from a Braves fan’s perspective.

I’ll let Fred fill you in on the game itself, as his post of a short while ago does a great job of doing just that. And, since the announcers kind of touched on this topic, I can’t really label this as a “things they should have said” post either. Let’s just think of this as our little ray of sunshine that was disguised as a rain cloud.

I guess the headline gives away what I want to talk about (which, come to think of it, is what a headline is supposed to do, I suppose!): Peter Moylan.

While Moylan’s performance today was only so-so, I firmly believe it is a harbinger of good things to come. Those of you who have followed my writing for a while know that I have been a Moylan fan ever since he broke on the scene. You probably remember my premise that deception is one of the five tools that pitchers have to get batters out. Moylan’s low-sidearm release is something seldom seen, and seldom practiced against. Even when he was still recovering from elbow surgery, he was effective, especially against right handed hitters.

The great news for Braves fans is that he is now two years post-surgery and is fully recovered. His velocity is now fully recovered as well. At 89-90, he’s hard to hit. At 93-94, a hit is mostly a function of luck. Even if a batter wanted to practice, no one else throws that hard from that angle. Combined with his change-up, this increase in velocity should make him as hard on left handed batters as right. And that’s very good news for the Braves. In the unlikely event that Venters and Kimbrell struggle, Moylan is even a good closer option.

I for one was very happy to see this version of Peter Moylan appear in a regular season game. What do you think?