Zach Eflin, Philadelphia Phillies
Following a couple lackluster cups of coffee in the big leagues, Philadelphia got some legitimate production out of Eflin this past year. As a metaphor for the Phillies’ season, though, he fell off considerably in the second half.
The 24-year-old right-hander looked great through his first 68.2 innings, posting a 3.15 ERA, .281 wOBA allowed, 24.0% strikeout rate, and 5.0% walk rate. All of those numbers got worse after the midsummer classic, with his 5.76 ERA being the most notable of all.
Eflin’s batted-ball profile displays where some of the issues took place, as his pull rate (32.7% to 40.7%), soft-hit rate (23.0% to 18.0%), and hard-hit rate (26.0% to 32.3%) all went in the wrong direction. Although his walk rate also worsened, his 6.8% season-long rate is right around his current career norms, while his 22.5% strikeout rate is a huge improvement (11.4% in ’16, 12.5% in ’17).
About Matt Musico
Matt currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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