Taylor Clarke

Clarke kept batters to just a .186 BAA with his changeup last season, but nearly every peripheral stat suggests regression is to come. He doesn’t miss enough bats with the pitch to believe in it.

A .348 BAA and a sub-5 SwStr% are not the numbers a pitcher wants to see from his big hook. The pitch leaves very little to be excited about.

Clarke gave up an abysmal 17 home runs off his fastball in 2019, along with a .403 wOBA. Add in the fact that it all came on a BABIP of .206 and this qualifies as one of the worst offerings of the season.

Clarke’s saving grace last season was a slider that carried a 33% K-rate and a 20% SwStr rate.

Clarke’s most used pitch his his four seam fastball. This pitch doesn’t have a standout characteristic other than how bland it is. He needs to hit his spots in order to be effective.

Clarke’s change has some decent run on it – this looks to be a decent weapon against LHH. 25.6% usage rate may be higher than ideal for this pitch, but we will see.

Take a seat, Contreras! As long as Clarke keeps putting his two-seamer down in the zone (and not over the plate!), he could be seeing more guys swinging over it. A 93 MPH two-seamer with changeup action is nothing to scoff at.

Clarke can really spin this pitch. His highest rated pitch (per Fangraphs) provides a lot of depth; in addition, Clarke seems to be able to control this pitch very well.

Based on his usage (least used pitch) and how this specific pitch looks, I am not that excited for Clarke’s slider. Let’s just say if that pitch was over the plate it would be a quintessential meatball.