John Means

Means’ changeup has above average horizontal break and is his second most effective pitch by xwOBA.

He doesn’t throw his curveball often and when he does he has gotten burned on it. Hitters produced a .764 xSLG against it in 2019. He should stop throwing this pitch entirely.

His fastball has well above average vertical movement and is arguably the best pitch in his repitore. His fastball has above average spin as well.

He keeps his slider away from lefties and it has proven to be his best pitch. He uses it primarily against lefties late in the count to get swings and misses.

Means featured the fastball last season. It has nice vertical movement, but hitters saw it pretty well hitting a bunch of line drives and a home run in limited work. It doesn’t have a ton of velocity, but it has potential with how much he throws it in the zone mixed with a decent outside swing rate.

The slider is Means’ strikeout pitch, generating a 42.9% strikeout rate and .143 BAA. The pitch has good potential, a crazy 53.3% outside swing rate is nothing to sneeze at. He may need to find the zone with the pitch more often, but this looked good last season.

The changeup was an effective third pitch, with a good amount of vertical and horizontal movement. It generated a 15.4% swinging-strike rate, but hitters didn’t offer too much out of the zone. It held hitters to a .250 BAA.

Means rarely showed his curve, throwing only five in limited work. It doesn’t have a bunch of movement, and doesn’t seem like much to write home about until he develops it further.