The hope was that once the Pirates got Bubba Chandler signed, in the system and focused on baseball, he’d start to unlock the immense raw potential that made him such a highly regarded prospect in the 2021 draft.
Starting out in the Florida Complex League this past season, Chandler dominated, striking out nearly half of the hitters that he faced (45.8 K%), while also not allowing a run in 15.1 innings pitched.
He moved up to Bradenton, flashed his explosive fastball that FCL hitters helpless, but also showed some of the work that was still needed to be done. Control was an issue, with an overall walk rate of 16.1% in 41.1 innings pitched.
When on the mound, Chandler features an electric fastball that is already one of the best in the entire system. While with Bradenton, the pitch averaged 95 mph, reaching as high as 98, and picked up a swinging strike rate of 16.5%, as well as a called strike/whiff rate of 34%.
With such an easy, and smooth delivery, you can see why Chandler was so successful with the pitch. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to see a little more of a velocity jump at some point.
Some of the troubles he got into controlling the pitch came with runners on base. It looked like he was trying to be too precise with the pitch instead of just throwing and letting it beat the hitters.
Once he settled down, he dug in and blew a couple of fastballs past the hitter.
One of the biggest leaps he made over his brief time in Bradenton was the work of his breaking ball. In his first game in Single-A, it had a good break but there wasn’t much shape to it.
By the time we got around to August and one of his last outings in the season (it was the last one available on stream, his best outing of the season was lost due to rain postponing it to the next day), the pitch still had some rough moments but you can see sharper breaks to it.
He also wasn’t shy in throwing the breaking pitch to lefties, although he did allow a home run on the pitch and finished out the game using mostly fastballs.
Gaining a little bit of confidence to continue to throw it to lefties, as well continuing to work on the sharpness of the pitch, gives Chandler the potential to have two plus level pitches.
You can see some of the evolution of the pitch in the video above. The first part is from his Bradenton debut against Jupiter, followed by the latest game available against Palm Beach. Pitch is still a bit raw, but there is plenty of potential there, and you can see his growing confidence in the pitch as the season went on.
Three at-bats stood out against Palm Beach on August 8th for Chandler. Against the first batter he faced on the night, he fed him fastballs away to jump up 0-2, before throwing a back door breaking ball to get a called strike three.
Chandler threw the breaking ball multiple times against lefties until he allowed that home run, showing confidence to throw it on both sides of the plate.
The next clip was one batter later, this time leading off with the breaking ball to work the count to 1-2, before painting the corner with a 96 mph fastball for a called strike three.
Finally, Chandler finishes off a batter with a less than ideal breaking ball up and in, but he was able to work both sides of the plate, incorporating the fastball, to keep the hitters guessing.
Chandler’s name has been brought up plenty lately, with Baseball America throwing his name out there as a potential midseason addition to their Top 100 prospect list, while The Athletic already has him on theirs.
With some of the highest upside in the system, Chandler showed progression in his brief time in Bradenton all the while showing the potential that makes him such a hyped prospect.
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Bubba Chandler was a highlight of the 2021 draft, and Anthony Murphy looked at the progress and potential he showed during his debut season.
Bubba Chandler Showed Progress and Potential In His Debut Season
