14 BF, 52 pitches, 71% strikes, 10 Whiffs (1 via FB, 9 via secondaries)
Mendez’s career felt stalled out in Lake Elsinore, but some newfound strike-throwing has revitalized the hard-throwing righty’s career. Walks have been a big problem in the past, but what’s going on lately?:
Mendez made his A+ debut on 5/9. Since then, amongst all starters and piggybackers at the level, only Ryan Gallagher, McCade Brown, and Trey Gibson have bested Mendez’s 40.4 K%. Mendez is throwing harder than I recall, but it might be an uptick in secondary command leading the developmental jump here. I don’t recall Mendez hitting upper 90s with the fastball. As you can see, the command of the potentially new heat is a work in progress. Mendez’s strike earning with the secondaries is more impressive than the fastball’s. Take a look for yourself. There is the hard fastball, two breakers, and I believe a splitter as the offspeed. Don’t take my pitch labelling at 100% here, but close. Here’s his second A+ outing vs the second-best offense in the league:
The 70+% strike throwing on the day isn’t reflective of the execution level exuded here. Mendez struggled to spot the fastball well, but seems to have the velocity to get away with it at this level. He also received a lesson in offering the get-me-over or steal-first-pitch-strike fastball when Jenkins sent one. Easy to see how Mendez’s future may be as a pensman, still yet to prove a starter’s load, both in a season and within outings, but are we sitting at the precipice of his chance to prove those horses? This wasn’t Mendez’s most recent outing. His last (not archived) saw him throw 86 pitches over 4.1 inefficient innings, whereupon he walked 5 and struck out 9.
For all you velocity truthers, how many 0%ers touching 99 with the heater, striking out as many hitters as anyone at their level, are still out there? Mendez’s development might be taking a juicy turn here. Or it’s just a classic blip on the radar of a fireballer with no command story we’ve heard a million times. Mendez’s secondary command has me wondering if the classic tale might not be the whole story. Mendez still has plenty to prove, but this 0%er intrigues.