Bubba Chandler is Overpowering Hitters With His Fastball

This past Friday, Bubba Chandler made his Single-A debut on the mound.

A year ago, the Pirates lured the third rounder out of his commitment to Clemson by offering him $3 million and the opportunity to pitch and hit.

While he had already pitched in the Florida Complex League, this was the first and best opportunity so far to break down Chandler on the mound.

Fastball

Looking at his Statcast whiff metrics, as well as watching him pitch, you can see why Florida Complex League hitters were no match for him. While in the FCL, Chandler struck out 45% of the batters he faced, with 27 total in 15 1/3 innings pitched.

The majority of the damage done on the mound for the first time with Bradenton was done by his fastball. He hit 99 MPH one time — which hit a batter in the first inning.

Chandler averaged 95 MPH on his fastball and posted some really strong spin numbers. One in particular, a swinging strike, had a RPM of 2593 and went 98 MPH.

He had 10 walks in those 15 1/3 innings, highlighting those control issues. A lot of that came towards the end of his start as he got tired.

Breaking Ball

It’s difficult to define the breaking pitches from Chandler at this point.

Most scouting reports have Chandler listed with both a curveball and slider. According to Baseball Savant he threw a slider, curveball, and ‘cutter’ as well on Thursday. The spin rate, velocity, and movement on them were close enough that I grouped them all together to save space.

You can see a difference in the breaking point between what could be called a slider and curveball. The latter of which he threw mainly against lefties in the clip above. The slider had good some good movement but was a little flat at times, and the curve was left a little high.

Final Look

We’ve seen each of Chandler’s pitches broken down separately, but I wanted to take another look at Chandler as a part of a live game flow.

The first clip of the video shows Chandler completely overpower the hitter in rout to a four pitch strikeout that saw three swing and misses. Next up, Chandler again starts with all fastballs, coming back from a 2-0 count to eventually get the hitter looking at a curveball.

Finally, Chandler pumps in fastballs on both sides of the plate before throwing a slider on the outer half for another called strike three.

Ultimately, Chandler looked very much like a 19-year-old making his Single-A debut. You can see the raw talent that allowed him to completely outclass the FCL. You can also see the work that needs to be done.

The Bradenton rotation is starting to show some great promise. Chandler joins fellow 2021 draft pick Anthony Solometo, as well as international standouts Po-Yu Chen, and Carlos Jimenez. Chandler obviously will look to make an impact at the plate as well, but even in this brief glimpse, you saw why he was so highly touted on the mound.

THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS

Williams: What it Takes to Go From the Draft to the Majors

Bubba Chandler is Overpowering Hitters With His Fastball

Rodolfo Castro is working on his defense to get back to Pittsburgh

WTM: The Pirates Definitely Aren’t Swingers

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