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A Quick Look at Tyler Glasnow’s Declining Walk Totals

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Tyler Glasnow has been gradually reducing his walks this year. (Photo Credit: Tom Bragg)
Tyler Glasnow has been gradually reducing his walks this year. (Photo Credit: Tom Bragg)

Last night I noticed that Tyler Glasnow had a ridiculously low walk rate, at least for Tyler Glasnow standards. All year Glasnow has been striking out well over a batter an inning on average. Earlier in the season, he had a very high walk rate, due to his inability to repeat his delivery. As the season has gone on, the walks have dropped. After last night’s start, he had a 3.06 BB/9 ratio in his last ten games, which is outstanding when you’ve also got a 12.31 K/9 in that same time period.

I wanted to get a look at how Glasnow was improving with his walks as the year went on. So I started with his tenth game of the season, and looked at his rolling BB/9 average for every start in his previous ten games. The results can be seen in the chart below. Click the image for a bigger version.

Tyler Glasnow BB9

As you can see, the walks have been on a steady decline. Glasnow was around a 6-7 BB/9 for his first 12 starts. Slowly he dropped to the 4.50-5.00 range for most of the season. But lately he has been cutting down on the walks completely. In the last ten starts, he has gone four innings or more each time. He has walked three or fewer batters each time. He’s walked three batters just twice, and has walked just one batter five times. In those one walk starts, only one of them was less than five innings.

Glasnow has a 93-96 MPH fastball that he can get up to 99 MPH. He has a curveball that can be inconsistent, but is a plus offering when it’s on. He has a feel for a changeup, but needs to work on throwing it with more separation from his fastball to add some deception. He throws on a steep downward plane, making him very difficult to hit. The biggest issue with him has been that control, and as seen above, it’s on a steady decline and is now at a reasonable range. If Glasnow continues to improve in this area, then we’re definitely looking at a potential top of the rotation starter.

Oh yeah, and he’s 19 years old for one more week.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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