Mariners Analysis: Prospects Play Part in M’s Success

Few games have been better for Mayckol Guaipe than his major league debut back in 2015 against the New York Yankees as he pitched a perfect 2.1 innings of relief, fanning two batters. Yet, while his career line reads 0-3 with 3 blown saves and an 5.29 ERA, there has been more of a positive feeling about Guaipe’s potential as he grows into the man he is destined to become.

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Within the past decade Guaipe has experienced some key changes to his game. First, the Mariners development staff felt that his stuff be more effective in short spurts as a reliever- the relief role worked with the Jackson Generals in 2014 as he boasted a 2.89 ERA in 31 appearances with 12 saves. Second, his physical stature has become indisputably more intimidating. When he was a young man in 2006 he stood 6’2” and weighed a mere 175 lbs. 10 years later he has put on a considerable amount of weight, now pushing 240 on the scale and growing 2 inches taller as well. This transformation helps to intimidate the batters who wait in the box ready to take him on.

Mayckol’s hitting the middle of the zone on 49% of his pitches. To emphasize how often he actually hit the batters sweet spot with his pitches, just think that 6 of 7 of his most struck targets were near the middle of the strike zone. All of this explains why his ERA is 4.91 and batters have a slugging percentage of .310 against the young Venezuelan, and why he was sent back down to Triple-A Tacoma.

If he can work on varying the location of his pitches while adding more speed to his fastball, he should be able to work his way back to the 25-man roster.