Scouting Casey Fien With PITCHf/x

Detroit Tigers newly called up reliever Casey Fien made his major league debut tonight against the Chicago White Sox. First, here's a look at him by the numbers:

2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 29 pitches, 17 strikes, 2 ground outs, 3 fly outs.

And now, the release points (click all images to enlarge):

Fien is releasing the baseball at a shade under 6-feet high on average. Given his 6-foot-2 frame, he's got a bit of a 3/4 delivery (unfortunately, I didn't get to see him pitch tonight as I was out with friends that aren't baseball fans -- yeah, yeah, I know. There are some of those types of people that do exist. Blows my mind, as well).

The strike zone plot:

As I stated earlier, he threw 17 of his 29 pitches for strikes.

And now the pitch flight graphs (presented by Harry Pavlidis' pitch flight generator -- I know he seems like he sponsors this blog, but I assure you that he doesn't!):


I debated on whether I should graph the change-up since it was the only one that he threw and there's nothing to be gained of a pitch so far out of the strike zone. Obviously, I elected to graph it. From this, his fastball seems pretty flat and straight, though we are working with just a 22-pitch sample. He averaged just under 92 MPH on the heater (91.6, to be exact) while his six slider's clocked in at an average of 80 MPH. I like the breaking ball more than the fastball. It's got a bit of sweeping action (bird's eye view) and good downward movement (1st base view). The pitch flight graph doesn't scream "electric stuff" but that doesn't mean much given he's just now getting to the majors and hasn't had overly eye-popping numbers in the minors.

Speaking of his minor league numbers, here's what you should expect from Fien moving forward, if he sticks in the Tigers bullpen:

-Not a lot of grounders. He's consistently been in the 30% range.
-Few walks as he's usually been around 4-6% of batters faced getting a free pass
-Good strikeout totals. Hovering around 27-30% in his various stops of the minor leagues.

I'd expect his strikeout percentage to drop with his move to the major leagues -- elite level relievers K upwards of 27% in the bigs and Fien is not that, but he's definitely a potentially solid arm out of the bullpen. The type of arm that can earn a man a good living without all of the accolades. Good 7th or 8th inning guy who should be around 20-22% K's and low BB totals out of the pen. How nice does "low walk totals" and "out of the 'pen" sound for a Detroit Tigers relief pitcher description? So, so nice.