Obviously it is early to do a more in-depth analysis, but I confess that since the ill-fated Jose Fernandez I had not seen a Cuban starter that excited me as much as Vladimir Gutierrez.
The right-hander from Pinar del Río achieved his first victory yesterday in the best baseball in the world with a five-inning outing against the Cardinals, who gave him three hits, scored two earned runs and received three strikeouts and the same number of bases.
A few days before, against the Cubs, he had lost in his debut with a job superior to that of the day before (ironies of baseball) summarized in five innings of two hits, one run, two transfers and a trio of coffees.
25 years old, The one from the Reds has not been wrinkled by the monsters that have been in front of him in the appearances of yore (Bryant, Báez, Arenado, Pederson...), and right now he boasts an ERA of 2.70, WHIP of 1,000 and rival average of .147, almost 100 points below MLB (.236).
True: his strikeout (15.0%) and walk (12.5%) performances are qualitatively below the league, but still The figures it exhibits in percentage of solid connections (24.1%) and line hits (10.3%) are stimulating.. In such parameters, the championship averages are 39.5% and 23.5%, respectively.
An inside look at his work reveals that of the 144 pitches made, 56.3% have been on fastballs accompanied by curves (19.4%), sliders (13.9%) and changeups (10.4%). According to FanGraphs, his fastball has averaged 93.2 mph.
From Joseíto to here
Exception made of the aforementioned José Fernández, his namesake Jose Ariel Contreras and the Hernández brothers (Orlando and Liván), all of Cuba's outstanding starters in the Big Top passed through there several decades ago, such as Adolfo Luque, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Mike Cuéllar or the greatest of all, Luis Tiant.
That is to say, the Cuban fan is hungry for rank starters. The Navy has luxury closers and five-star hitters, but not men capable of scoring 15+ wins per season. Joseíto, a potential Hall of Famer, died when he was beginning his career, and from then to date there has been little truly encouraging news.
Let's say, Odrisamer Despaigne lacked sufficient weapons; Ariel Miranda, who inspired so much faith, did not manage to settle in Seattle; Roenis Elías's injuries have been swallowing him up; Johan Oviedo has not celebrated a success in nine starts; Adrian Morejon, who aimed for the highest, already knew Tommy John's scalpel... And Ronald Bolaños? Okay. What happens next...
Thus, Vladimir represents hope. I hope I always hit the shots.
What do you think?
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