Opponent Preview: Vladimir Gutierrez
For the second game in a row, the Reds are running a starting pitcher out who debuted only last season.
Unlike last night’s Sanmartín however, the Braves have seen Gutierrez before. Everyone still in the Atlanta lineup that faced him last season struck out against him, except Dansby & Contreras. Dansby & Heredia both took him deep last year.
Although he ended last season with a 9-6 record, he’s not a particularly good pitcher. That’s not me being a homer, take a look at his Baseball Savant rankings below:
Arsenal
Gutierrez boasts a five-pitch arsenal, consisting of: a four-seamer, slider, curveball, changeup, & sinker (only threw it three times).
He’s a fastball-heavy pitcher, throwing it 47% of the time, with an average velocity of 93.2 mph.
He threw his slider 22% of the time last season. Average drop of 37.3 inches with 9.5 inches of horizontal break.
He threw his curveball 328 times (17.9%). His curveball has - and this isn’t a typo- 53 inches of drop. It even has 15 inches of horizontal break. It has all the makings of a Max Fried curveball, but batters have been able to just spit on it & wait for his fastball (accounting for a run value of 10, worst pitch by run value by 9 runs).
He neglected his changeup last season, only throwing it 12.2% of the time. It was effective when he threw it, with 32 inches of drop & just under 13 inches of horizontal break. His changeup is the only pitch he threw last season with a negative run value (the lower the number the better, for a pitcher). Coming in at -5, 5 runs better than his curveball & sinker.
He only threw his sinker three times last season, so there’s just not enough data on it to make a judgment.
Tendencies
In 2021, he threw about half his pitches in the strikezone (49.6%). 68% of those pitches drew a swing. 82% of those swings made contact.
He only drew a swing on a quarter of his pitches thrown outside the zone.
He started 61.1% of at-bats with a called strike in 2021.
Pitcher Plinko
Pictured is Vladimir Gutierrez’ “Pitcher Plinko”, powered by Baseball Savant.