Michael Kopech Just Got The Call to The Show
This was the perfect capping to a great summertime Chi weekend. Michael Kopech, or the “2nd” player in the Chris Sale deal, has officially checked off all boxes and will be starting Tuesday for the Chicago White Sox.
I’ve said this a few times – Kopech has one of the most lively fastballs on planet earth. Life on life on life. Sure, there are many guys who pump 100 in today’s game, though most of them reside in the bullpen, but not all 100MPH fastballs are created equal; some look 94 and others look 105. Kopech’s fastball is the latter. The perceived velocity is different when the ball leave’s Kopech’s hand, and when he command’s it’s location, it’s straight up lethal.
BUT, and this is a big but – he has had issues commanding not just his fastball, but his entire arsenal. A pitcher can throw 100MPH, possess a wipe out slider and pair those two pitches with a devastating change up, but if he can’t command all three then it becomes exponentially easier for hitters to touch them up.
And Kopech did get touched up in the 1st half of the season a bit. Part of player development is rebounding from failure, and hooooo boy has Kopech rebounded recently. I don’t know if he made a mechanical change, a mental adjustment or a combination of both, but something happened after the all star break where he just clicked and proceeded to bend AAA hitting over a hand rail. Here are his statistics in his last 7 starts:
* 44 IP
* 59 strike outs
* 4 walks
* 35 hits
* .88 WHIP
* 1.84 ERA
* an xFIP and FIP of around 2.2
Sheer, unadulterated domination. Command, command and more command. He’s checked every box. Take a look at the video below:
Absolute filth with three different pitches. Sox fans are about to have a lot of fun with this rotation. Rodon and Kopech are going to form one of the very best top of the rotations in baseball in due time.
On deck: Eloy Jimenez
#Pray4TheLeague
PS – a lot of people asking me why they don’t just keep Kopech down until mid-April next season so they have a guaranteed 7 years of control for him. I am of the opinion that once a pitcher is deemed “ready” by an organization, then you get him up as fast as you can. Pitchers have a finite amount of bullets in their arm, so you might as well use them against MLB hitting. Kopech could have a 15 year career or 3 year career. You just never know with pitchers. Comparing Kopech’s situation to Eloy’s is different for that reason. The chances Eloy has a 15 year career are exponentially higher than Kopech’s because of injury risk alone.