What we learned about Mariners No. 1 prospect Kade Anderson in his MLB debut

Kade Anderson was set up to take an L in his major league debut right up until Randy Arozarena came to his rescue at the last minute. A good outcome for Anderson and the Seattle Mariners? Undoubtedly. But for our purposes, it also required taking our eyes off the ball when it came to digging deep on how the left-hander pitched against the Chicago Cubs.

The results were perfectly solid. The 22-year-old Anderson came one out short of registering a quality start, lasting 5.2 innings and allowing three runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts. Two of those runs came on his last two pitches, when Alex Bregman and Michael Busch took him deep for back-to-back home runs.

Whether Anderson should have been out there by then is highly suspect. The Cubs have a dangerous offense, and especially against lefties and the third time through the order against a starter. Anderson was also pushing the 80-pitch mark, which was his ceiling in his 18 starts for Double-A Arkansas. By asking the rookie to go past that, Dan Wilson took and paid for a high-risk gamble.

All that said, now's the time for a proper deep dive into the real quality of Anderson's major league debut.

Kade Anderson's highly anticipated Mariners debut was a mostly positive mixed bag

There's room for improvement

For a general impression of how Anderson's stuff and command played on Saturday, here's Pitcher List with a helpful graphic that breaks it all down:

As Anderson is arguably the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, it's not exactly encouraging to see a "B-" for his stuff and "D+" for his location in his MLB debut. And those marks do underscore some real issues.

He hit the strike zone with just 39.5 percent of his pitches, and the eye test recalls that he had more than a few issues hitting Cal Raleigh's targets. Lance Brozdowski, a player development analyst for Marquee Sports Network, also called out changes for the worse in the shape of Anderson's four-seamer. It had less spin and less movement compared to what he had the Double-A level, where they notably don't use the same ball as the ones in use at Triple-A and the majors.

He gave everyone a look at his crafty side

Then again, Anderson got seven whiffs on 14 swings against his slider and curveball. He also had an easy time getting Cubs hitters to expand the strike zone, and they didn't make much solid contact despite the two homers and a near-third off the bat of Miguel Amaya:

The more you think about what Cubs hitters were seeing, the more this makes sense.

Though Anderson is listed at 6-foot-2, he was getting 6.9 feet of extension on his pitches. That's the same as Philadelphia Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez, who has four inches of height on Anderson. He also made the most of his four-pitch arsenal, as his 81 pitches were a split between 27 four-seamers, 20 sliders, 18 changeups and 16 curveballs. He was at least trying to use all four quadrants of the zone, and Rob "Pitching Ninja" Friedman even noticed that Anderson used both sides of the rubber:

All of this is unequivocally encouraging, and ultimately a reminder that there's more to the Anderson hype than just sheer talent. He also goes various extra miles, and those should matter even more when he gets a better handle on his stuff and command.

Fatigue did seem to be a factor

We're only bringing this up because there was a noticeable drop in Anderson's average fastball velocity as Saturday's game went on:

• 1st Inning: 94.7 mph
• 2nd Inning: 93.7 mph
• 3rd Inning: 93.8 mph
• 4th Inning: 93.7 mph
• 5th Inning: 92.1 mph
• 6th Inning: 92.4 mph

There was surely some adrenaline at work in that first inning, as Anderson was making his MLB debut and his first start at T-Mobile Park. The second, third and fourth innings are a better reflection of what his radar gun readings are usually like.

After that, the slippage in the fifth inning should have been Wilson's first cue that Anderson either needed to be done or on a very short leash when he went back out for the sixth. Instead, it seems that Wilson didn't notice.

“He still had, you know, some pitches to go, and we thought he was throwing the ball extremely well,” the skipper said after the game, per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.

The way it ended aside, Anderson's major league debut was ultimately a positive experience. Even if there is still room for improvement, it's not as if he won't ever make another start for the Mariners. This was merely the first of hopefully hundreds.

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