Neil Allen, pitching savior?

[Brock Beauchamp]

The two emergent starters on the Twins this season have obviously been Mike Pelfrey and Kyle Gibson. I was looking over their peripherals and noticed some interesting trends and wondered "is this Neil Allen's influence?"

 

Here are the pitch selections for Pelfrey and Gibson. The first is their 2015 number, the second is the 2014 number.

 

Pelfrey: 2015 - 2014

Fastball: 67.4% - 79.9%

Slider: 10.6% - 8.1%

Curve: 3.8% - 3.5%

Split-Finger: 18.1% - 8.5%

 

Pelfrey has cut way down on his fastball and replaced it with his slider and split-finger. His fastball is still below average (-7.1 runs last season, -1.4 this season) but he's throwing it less often. His split-finger has gone from a below average pitch to a very good pitch (-1.1 last season, +1.0 this season). The same goes for his slider (-1.4 last season, +1.3 this season). He's throwing his weakest pitch less often and has turned his complementary offers into plus pitches while throwing them more often.

 

Gibson: 2015 - 2014

Fastball: 60.6% - 62.6%

Slider: 17.8% - 21.8%

Curve: 4.4% - 3.2%

Change: 17.2% - 12.5%

 

Gibson's pitch selection is almost certainly influenced by Neil Allen, a man well known to love the change. He's throwing his fastball and slider less and relying on the change more often. His fastball is close to a neutral pitch (-1.6 runs last season, -0.3 this season) but his slider has taken a big step backward (+6.3 last season, -2.0 this season). That has been offset by his improved change, which has gone from neutral to "holy ****" (+0.1 last season, +5.6 this season). His curve has also improved but he throws it so infrequently that I'm not sure it matters (-2.2 last season, +0.5 this season).

 

We all know that Allen loves the change but it appears that in the case of Mike Pelfrey, he is pushing for a different solution. To me, that's an extremely positive sign, as one of the knocks against Anderson was that it appeared he tried to force every pitcher to take the same approach and fit the same mold.

 

Something to watch as the season progresses, for sure.

[Mill1634]

No, Mike Pelfrey is the savior. 

[spinowner]

 

No, Mike Pelfrey is the savior. 

No, Terry Ryan is the savior for signing Pelfrey to that 2-year contract. (And, like almost every other Twins fan, I would never have said such a thing until the last couple weeks.)

[zenser]

I am pleasantly surprised by the results of the entire staff.  I wouldn't have guessed that this group could perform at this level together for the length of time that they have. 

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

If it weren't for Ervin Santana, Pelfrey would be in the bullpen right now... So, Ervin Santana is the savior.

 

Wait.... That's seems off somehow.

 

Anyway, I think Neil Allen should get some credit for being able to get improved results from pretty much the entire pitching staff compared to last year.

[Willihammer]

I do think there is something to the same-sided changeup (or splitter in Pelfrey's case). Its not that novel anymore, quite a few pitchers use it these days, but something we didn't see much of (if at all) in the Anderson era.

[Minniman]

More change ups?

 

I can here the sweet music playing again in Minnesota.

[Zachary]

Neil Allen = Our modern day equivalent of Lou Brown. 

 

I would have given this title to Molitor, but the offense hasn't been sitting at the bottom of the barrell quite like the pitching has in recent years. When you can somehow take a rag tag group and make them pitch as respectfully as they have, you deserve some credit. 

 

[Thrylos]

Not sure that it is Neil Allen per se, or the departure of Anderson...

[Kwak]

The new field management team clearly deserves some credit.  Under appreciated is that the Twins have done a lot of early scoring.  I am convinced that pitching with the lead has improved their self-confidence in turn leading to improved results.