Seattle Mariners: Don’t be Brashful, Welcome to the Show Matt Brash

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Apr 13, 2022
Seattle Mariners
Matt Brash, Seattle Mariners.

The Seattle Mariners rolled out their newest young starter in Matt Brash, against Minnesota. He pitched well enough to win. Unfortunately, the Mariners’ bats remained frozen, and Brash took the loss. We review his MLB debut.

Making his Seattle Mariners debut this week is Matt Brash. Some fans may not be as aware of Brash and his ability. For those who are in the know, they left his first start in love with him. He was everything everyone was saying about him.

Matt Brash versus the Minnesota Twins

Matt Brash was the tough-luck loser in his first Major League start. He showed several plus-plus pitches during the outing. Overall he threw 85 pitches. Here are his other surface-level statistics:

  • Innings: 5.1
  • Strikeouts: 6
  • Walks: 1
  • Hits Allowed: 4
  • Runs/Earned Runs: 2
  • ERA: 3.38

Those are the statistics that you can pull up from any box score. What you can’t pull up from a box score are two things. 1) How nasty his pitchers were. 2) How hard the White Sox were hitting batted balls.

Was He Really That Nasty?

Throughout his outing, Brash looked absolutely unhittable, featuring a nasty curveball or knuckle curve as StatCast couldn’t tell the difference (29 pitches) and an even nastier slider (22 pitches). He gave up one hit off the slider (only threw it against right-handed hitters), and it was taken deep by Sox centerfielder Luis Robert. Other than that, no one could touch it.

His curveball was the final pitch for four of his six strikeouts, and while he also gave up two hits off the curve, it proved nearly unhittable as well. His fastball (30 pitches) averaged 96.3 MPH and peaked out at 98. The speed was elite level, the spin rate (movement) wasn’t elite level. In fact, his 2.1 inches of vertical movement would rank near the bottom of the league.

Hit Hard but Got Lucky

71.4% of the contact leading to hits or outs were considered hard hits, according to Baseball Savant. That’s an incredibly high number and shows that there was a little bit of luck in Brash’s exceptional outing. By contrast, Robbie Ray’s HardHit% was 47.1% in his first start, and he’s never been above 46% for an entire season. In the event that you still don’t think 71.4% is high, Logan Gilbert was at 36.4% in his start in the same amount of pitches.

Parting Thoughts

If you watched the game or have seen the highlights, there is plenty to be excited about Matt Brash’s performance. The elite spin rate he demonstrated on his curveball and his slider show that if he can get them over for strikes, or use them in pitcher counts, he’s going to be dominant. Also, the balance in his pitches is something you don’t typically see in prospect pitching. Finally, Brash showed that he could throw three different pitches consistently for strikes.

Joe Swenson is an author, playwright, screenplay writer, and all-around nice guy. His play, “Final Out” is set to make its debut in September 2022.

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