STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Don't look now, but Steven Brault has turned into the starting pitching depth option the Pirates had hoped he would be.
While not without warts, Brault's performance since May 18 has been markedly improved. In his five games since that date, three of which were starts (although another should be considered a de facto start as he relieved opener Michael Feliz after just just one out in the first), Brault has pitched to a 2.55 ERA. His .225/.343/.337 triple-slash line is solid enough, aided by a .264 BABIP.
And now, the warts. Over that time frame, Brault struck out only 15.1 percent of his batters faced while walking 14.2 percent. Those numbers benefit slightly when adding in his other appearances, to 18.5 and 13 percent rates, respectively. During this stretch, Brault has given up hard contact 43.2 percent of the time, while inducing soft contact at just a 13.5 percent clip.
Still, that 2.55 ERA is tough to ignore, even if a 4.32 FIP tells us that it is a bit unearned.
What has changed for the left-hander? Turns out, quite a few things. Some larger in scope, some minuscule, but all adding up to a pitcher who is putting his best foot forward, no matter how steady that foot may ultimately be.
THE BIG CHANGE
Brault has essentially turned himself into a power pitcher, albeit without the power. Here's a look at how his usage has drastically changed over the past month-plus:
Brault has turned to his four-seam fastball as his weapon of choice, while mixing in a sinker and a slider/cutter hybrid that has fooled its fair share of pitch recognition systems. Though the changeup tracks as his second highest pitch by rate, its usage has slowly descended since Brault got "hot," down to just 6.28 percent usage in his most recent outing.
No matter how his pitches are seen, the simple fact is that Brault is doing something right. Take a look at his wOBA against his most important pitches dissected over these two time frames:
In a vacuum, these numbers are encouraging, but the newfound effectiveness with these pitches comes from an odd place.
THE SMALL CHANGE
In two-strike counts before May 18, Brault threw his slider/cutter hybrid at 31.5 percent of the time; that figure has dropped to 27.3 percent since that date.
Brault brings out his four-seamer to play at two-strikes. Of the 110 pitches that Brault has thrown at a two-strike count since he relieved Feliz, 59.1 percent of them have been four-seam fastballs, with a wOBA of just .209. Before May 18, he threw them at just a 13.4 percent clip of his 343 total pitches seen in two-strike counts, and carried a still-great wOBA of just .190.
The usage may seem like a big change, but this was not the "small" change I referenced. It's this: If you break out the pitch sequencing that Brault has displayed since May 18, he has thrown a fastball following a cutter or slider for 60.5 percent of his pitch pairings, as opposed to 49.5 percent previous.
What this means is that Brault has been able to successfully mix and match velocities as well as eye levels better than he has at any point in his career to date, by simply doing it more often. This can also explain why the walk rate is a little high. Sequencing in such a way is a bit of a tightrope walk, after all, and all it takes to let someone back into a count is for a hitter to lay off one pitch after seeing something with good movement. Brault has missed a good bit with the four-seamer over this time, backing this up:
As stated above, he's not without warts, but flipping the switch into attack mode and using his pitches in a smarter way has opened up the possibility that Brault is, in fact, a solid depth option.
MORE MOUND VISIT
June 13: Archer's bad fastball is worse
June 12: Looking at Tucker’s first taste
June 11: Marte’s partay rages once more
June 10: Colin Moran barreling toward consistency
