Danny Barnes Is Trying to Be the Same as Always

Source: toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com --- Tuesday, May 30, 2017
TORONTO – There’s a common perception about relievers in Baseball that makes them out to be these easily replaceable chips, one being the same as all the others. Although in certain circumstances this does hold true, it often gets taken to the extreme; people believe any pitcher in professional Baseball can luck their way into a solid relief season or two. This was the way I looked at Danny Barnes until a few weeks ago when, eventually, his stuff and results convinced me that he was here to stay. Barnes has had nothing but success in his brief big league career, with a career ERA of 3.00 in 33 innings pitched. He has done this by using a combination of three pitches – a four-seam fastball, a changeup, and a slider – to keep hitters off balance. Although some websites like BrooksBaseball have tracked Barnes’ slider and report its usage as being down this season, Barnes said that’s actually an error and that he is throwing them as often as he did last year. However, it’s not the slider that has been the difference maker for Barnes. It’s his changeup. And although Barnes believes the significant velocity difference between that pitch and his fastball contributes to his success, he attributes most of it to the break on the pitch: “Any pitch that has downward movement is a good pitch. That’s probably the biggest thing. Anything that’s moving down, where it’s going to be very hard to lift or get under, you’ll probably get a weak groun ...

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