Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepSouth
You're slipping. The LINK says, "Top 15 prospects".
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Whoops. Edited in Word because that's way too much to do in the edit box and ended up expanding my list a bit. Fixed now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RockChalk
The ace of the staff so far this year, IMO
Shields has brought #5 starter crap the last couple of months. Not sure if he is hiding an injury or just lost his changeup, but he has been pretty "meh" lately.
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According to PitchF/X, Shields is throwing a lot more cutters this year, and that pitch has been hit pretty hard (.290 average against it). He also is not putting people away with the change like he has in the past (K rate has basically been halved on the changeup, though he's on track to throw about 200 fewer changeups this year).
Compare that to what we've seen, and it definitely seems like he's lost some of the bite on his changeup. Needs to find that pitch (and I expect once he does, we'll see vintage James Shields).