At first glance, you may have yawned when the Dodgers Front Office acquired Anthony Banda from the Cleveland Indians… I mean Guardians. He is a 6′ 2″ 221 pound LHP who has a career record of 8-6 with a 5.64 ERA in 120 innings pitched over parts of eight seasons… YAWN! However, with the advent of PITCHf/x tracking, we can see what Mr. Banda brings to the game, and if you look at it closely, you might see why I think the Dodgers may have just found a diamond in the rough.
Anthony Banda has thrown 4,005 pitches that have been tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2016 and 2024, including pitches thrown in the MLB Regular Season and Spring Training. In 2024, he has relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (95mph) and Sinker (95mph), also mixing in a Change (89mph) and Slider (82mph). This is all according to www.BrooksBaseball.net.
“Banda’s fourseam fastball generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers, is blazing fast and has some natural sinking action. Their sinker is a real worm killer that generates an extreme number of groundballs compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, is blazing fast, generates fewer whiffs/swing compared to other pitchers’ sinkers and has some natural sinking action.
His change is thrown extremely hard, and generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ changeups, is a real worm killer that generates an extreme number of groundballs compared to other pitchers’ changeups and dives down out of the zone. Their slider generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ sliders, has exceptional depth and has short glove-side cut. “
This is all straight out of Brooks Baseball. It also smacks of being a classic Andrew Friedman move. The Dodgers have been known for turning around the careers of journeyman pitchers such as Joe Blanton, Brandon Morrow, Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney, Noah Syndergaard (whoops), and others. I would bet a dollar to a doughnut that Mark Prior and the staff are already working with Banda to make him a much better pitcher. The Dodgers did not waste any time in bringing him to the Show. We saw a glimpse of what he can do last night… and he will likely get better! Much Better! With Yarbrough as the long man and the resurgent Alex Vesia as the other lefties in the bullpen, the Dodgers just might be set. Plus… there is this:
With Brasier and Phillips due back soon, this bullpen has the potential to be devastating. With Feyereisen, Treinen, Hudson, and Grove all pitching well, where do Kelly, May, Hurt, and the Bazooka all fit? By the second half, this staff could be the very best in baseball. Tonight, it’s the D-Bags, whom I predicted would not be a .500 team… so far, I was right, with Corbin Carroll doing his best James Outman impression.
Mark, does Dustin May make it completely back this season? With everyone that could come back, isn’t going to get really crowded down in the bullpen? A nice problem, but keeping everyone happy could be a problem…….. Barnes laid down a nice bunt yesterday! Heck, maybe he should bunt every single time! He seems to have good bat control bunting. ….. I guess i’ll have to admit it. Kiki is pretty valuable to the team! He’s playing a strong 3rd while Max is out! Just need more production from Lux and the bench! …. Getting ready to go to press conference, my youngest son about to be named head coach where he played college baseball! Leaving a college that had never had a winning season when he got there. They had 25 plus wins 3 straight years and won 34 games this season! ..Proud papa!
Awesome!
Congrats to your son and you !
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats Proud Papa!! Enjoy this Special Day!!
May I ask what college?
Son just played his last game at UNCA this weekend. Bittersweet….
concord university mountain lions . division 2 . excellent school and baseball program.
Awesome, congrats!
Dodgers have traded for Yohan Ramirez from the Mets. Bullpen is getting crowded.
You can never have too much pitching!
Good pick-up for depth
If only AF could put together a good bullpen. 2021
We should have plenty of ammunition at the trade deadline.
Yohan Ramirez is interesting. His fastball was much faster last year. Either he’s a TJ waiting to happen, or the Dodgers think they can “fix” some mechanical issue. He does have a 95 MPH Sinker. From Baseball Savant:
10:10 PM ET
Diamondbacks (22-25)
Dodgers (32-17)
SP Joe Mantiply L
2-1 4.67ERA
SP Y. Yamamoto R
4-1 3.21 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
SS Mookie Betts R
DH S. Ohtani L
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
LF T. Hernandez R
CF Andy Pages R
RF J. Heyward L
3B E. Hernandez R
2B Miguel Rojas R
64° Wind 8 mph Out
Heyward starting against a lefty? Where’s Vargas?
It is a bullpen game. Mantiply will go maybe an inning or two. Heyward has a career .231 average against LHP with 32 homers. So, he might run into one.
Good point.
05/20/24 Los Angeles Dodgers designated RHP Eduardo Salazar for assignment.
05/20/24 Los Angeles Dodgers optioned RHP Landon Knack to Oklahoma City Baseball Club.
05/20/24 New York Mets traded RHP Yohan Ramírez to Los Angeles Dodgers for cash.
05/20/24 Los Angeles Dodgers activated RHP Yohan Ramírez.
“It takes a lot of work as far as the front office detecting certain guys from the outside, also player development having guys interanlly that we’ve used and plugged in, guys that have been optioned, guys that unfortunately we’ve had to DFA. For me, it’s the pitching guys, the run prevention guys. They’ve allowed for an environment to thrive. From Mark (Prior) to Danny (Lehmann) to (Josh Bard) to Connor (McGuiness), all those guys are hugely impactful for every single one of these guys. Then you look at the players themselves; it’s their guys to go out there and do their job, and they’ve done a fantastic job of that.”
— Dodgers manager Dave Roberts
Nice post Andrew, I wish all those barstool managers out there would get off the easy default of blaming everything from the lineup to traffic on the 405 on Roberts, you can totally see by what he was talking about how deeply embedded so many people have a say so and an opinion on the everyday lineup for the Dodgers. Wow, I can’t believe how deep these guys get. So in the future, when a game goes out the window, don’t put all your haterade on Doc,, lots of other guys had a hand in what’s going on ,
May 20, 2024
Phillips (hamstring) is expected to make 2-to-3 rehab appearances before being activated from the 15-day injured list, Eric Stephen of SBNation.com reports.
Stephen estimates that Phillips is about a week away from a return, though how the right-hander fares during his rehab outings will ultimately dictate his exact return date. He’s been shut down since May 3 since suffering a right hamstring strain.
May 20, 2024
May (elbow) has started throwing off a mound at the Dodgers’ team facility in Arizona, Eric Stephen of SBNation.com reports.
May has been slowly working his way back from the surgery underwent on his right flexor tendon and UCL in July. The right-hander will progressively increase his workload on the mound before he’ll likely throw live batting practice and ultimately go on an extended minor-league rehab assignment. The organization will likely be especially cautious in their approach to May’s recovery and his return to the majors is currently projected to come around the All-Star break.
Salazar DFA to make room for Ramirez.
He will get picked up.
Joc Pederson is not as fat as he used to be.
His OPS is tho!
Maybe that is why…
That OPS would look good in LF for Dodgers
How good are you when you’re having a “down” year and your OPS is .872!
Emmet Sheehan what’s the report on him,will he pitch this year.
TJ surgery, mid ’25 estimated return
I’m calling this shot, if Dustin May is healthy in a month or two, he would be straight up FILTHY as a late inning high leverage reliever.. Dude is nasty. Picture him and a healthy Joe Kelly from the 7th and 8th innings as a bridge to Trienan and Phillips. Damn…..
I see now the holes in Pages bat.
High-heat of course gives him trouble, but he also tries to pull every away-pitch, which results too often in rolling over them. He needs to learn how to vary his swing with his arms, or legs, or hands to hit away-pitches opposite field if he’s to become a complete hitter like the “big-4”.
The malaise he’s in now will take an off-season to fix, ..won’t happen this year ..but at least his swing is better than Outman’s.