Jays beat the Tigers 3-1 as Nate Pearson Impresses

Photo credit:Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

2 years ago

The Tigers and Jays played on Monday, with the Jays winning 3-1 . Let’s go over the key highlights from the day.

Nate Pearson:

Today’s pitching was for all the potential starters, such as Alek Manoah, Nate Pearson, Bowden Francis. Jermey Beasley also pitched three innings and got the save.

Pearson pitched two innings and started off rough, walking his first batter (who Alejandro Kirk later threw out). He then settled down and struck out four. Not only was his velocity sitting at 95-97, but he also reached 99 mph

He also had a great breaking ball which buckled the knees of the batter. In fact, there was only one ball hit in play in his 27 pitches.

S.W Junkball, who has recently started writing again noted how good his off speed pitches look.

This begs the question, what is the plan for Nate Pearson? Appearing on the radio broadcast yesterday, General Manager Ross Atkins said that the plan for Pearson is to remain available to start if need be throughout the season. I wrote an article on the interview, which you can read here.

Personally, I believe the bullpen as a high-leverage reliever is the best place for the 26-year-old right-handed flame thrower. However, the front office knows best! Here’s to good health for the former top prospect.

Orelvis Martinez:

Who doesn’t love Martinez content.

The 20-year-old had a competitive seven pitch at bat which saw him foul off two tough pitches. He eventually struck out on a breaking pitch.

In his next at bat, the young shortstop sent an absolute missile off the bat, just barely missing a two run homer.

However, in his next at bat, he showed why he isn’t quite ready for the big leagues. Martinez swung and missed at three straight change ups in an uncompetitive at bat. As he continues to progress through the minors, this will be something he has to improve.

Greg Bird making a case to make the team:

It’s important to take Spring Training stats with a grain of salt, but the 29-year-old went 2-2 with an RBI walk. He also had a towering shot on Sunday and now has a batting average of .666 and an on base percentage of .800 in 14 plate appearances.

Could Greg Bird be the lefty bat that the Jays have been looking for? If you want to learn more about the first baseman, I wrote an article about him here.

Jeremy Beasley throws his name into the mix:

I originally had Beasley in the section “other notes”, but as I continued to look him up further, I feel as if I have to write about him some more.

Today, he pitched three innings (originally slated for two), and struck out four. He got the save, which he would have done had the score not been close.

Interestingly, Beasley’s main issue last season was the walks. In 9.1 innings pitched in the big leagues, he had a good K/9 of 12.54, but had a walk rate of 8.68. After being DFA’ed and sent to Triple A, he pitched 18.2 innings and had a K/9 of 12.54, but a walk rate of 7.23.

Despite the high walk rate, he finished his Triple A season with a 2.89 ERA and 3.15, which is actually quite impressive for the 26-year-old. You can see why the Jays have interest in him, as he also averages 95 with his fastball.

Other notes:

Sadly, Jose De Leon was pulled after two pitches with what appeared to be an arm injury. The 29-year-old is a non-roster spring training invite. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, as it’s always a bad sign to see a pitcher holding his arm.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Brennan_L_D. Watch out for Beasley, as I believe he has an outside chance at pitching in the bullpen

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