How about that bounce-back start for Jameson Taillon, eh? After a rough go in Arizona, Taillon put up 6.0 innings of two-run ball, allowing four hits and three walks, and striking out seven. While that’s likely not a top half lineup in baseball, I still think the A’s are going to score some runs in that ballpark this season – look at what the Cubs did – and it made me feel pretty darn good about Taillon’s outing.
Taillon’s 35% CSW in the game was extremely high, and was reflective of all the whiffs and called strikes he was getting. The whiffs, in fact, were his most in nearly four years, and second most in his career:
Jameson Taillon's 19 whiffs today vs. A's are the 2nd most of his career & his highest in a start since Aug. 2021.And it wasn't just one dominant pitch today. Taillon got whiffs with his four-seam fastball (6), sweeper (5), changeup (4), cutter (3) & sinker (1). He also recorded 14 called strikes.
Of particular interest over here at those changeups, which he was throwing at a lower velocity than he has before, and getting more movement – vertical and horizontal – than he has before. We know he’s generally had more trouble with lefties than righties in his career, and has tried to neutralize them with his cutter and curveball, but having a high-quality changeup, too? That’d be huge for his success.
And it seems he knows it, because he’s been working on that revised change. From the Sun-Times:
“I’m sure you guys hear pitchers come into spring and always say, ‘I’m working on a changeup,’ ” Taillon said. “But this year was the first year in a while where I actually felt like I was leaving spring training with a changeup that could be real …. When I sync up and throw the changeup right, it’s a pitch that actually is a real weapon. And now it’s just about the consistency of it and figuring out who to throw it to, when to throw it. But normally I just throw the changeup in my back pocket and don’t really bring it out ….
“[It is h]uge for lefties. It’s no secret other teams stack lineups with lefties against me. And now it’s on me to find a way to punch back and show that I can get lefties out and limit slug and all of that. So the changeup for me could be a really good pitch, pitching in more to lefties instead of just everything away could be really big. Some days I’m going to lay in my cutter really well, and that’s going to be the featured pitch. It’s just having the ability to not be so predictable.”
Even if the changeup doesn’t actually evolve into a true wipeout pitch for Taillon, just having it more readily available can help his overall mix. In his first two seasons with the Cubs, Taillon threw a changeup just 3.7% of the time, so it was not something hitters really had to worry about too much (it was also a negative run value pitch). Through two starts this year, that usage has almost doubled. We’ll see if that was largely match-up related, or whether the usage dips if he loses feel, but it’s a heartening development so far.
written by
Brett Taylor
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation. You can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation, on Bluesky at @Brett-Taylor, and on LinkedIn here.Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
