Taylor Williams = ROOGY?

[adambr2]

Just wondering if we should be using this guy in more of a ROOGY type role to maximize him right now. Looking at his numbers I'm surprised how much he's been used against lefties -- 43 PAs vs lefties, 57 vs righties.

 

His splits are extreme -- lefties hit him very well to the tune of .289/.357/.553/.910.

 

Williams is almost completely untouchable against righties. .087/.250/.152/.402. He strikes out almost half of righties he faces, but only about 20-25% of lefties.

[YelichPosse]

i support this thread. those are filthy numbers vs righties.

[Tbadder]

Wow, nice catch adam. Those numbers are startling. I wonder if it’s always been this way.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Williams' FB/slider combo sets himself up to be devastating on righties. If he can improve his command to stop walking guys and make the hits lefties do get off him cause less damage, I think he's still much more than a ROOGY. For now, his ideal role is as a setup arm for 1+ innings of work that would be brought in to start innings with more righties than lefties scheduled to hit.

[adambr2]

Williams' FB/slider combo sets himself up to be devastating on righties. If he can improve his command to stop walking guys and make the hits lefties do get off him cause less damage, I think he's still much more than a ROOGY. For now, his ideal role is as a setup arm for 1+ innings of work that would be brought in to start innings with more righties than lefties scheduled to hit.

 

To clarify, I wasn't trying to say he's going to be limited to a ROOGY role long-term. Just that perhaps that's how he can best be utilized now. It appears to me that if 43% of his hitters have been lefty, we haven't put much focus to this point on trying to use him for righty heavy situations.

[OnaBadger58]

His splits in the minors last year suggest that he is much more effective against righties also. Looks a lot like Jacob Barnes from 2016.

[reillymcshane]

Williams 2017 numbers show pretty significant splits: 4.05 ERA and a .316 BA vs lefties. Against righties it was 2.36 ERA and a .181 BA.

 

However, just like this year, those are pretty small samples. Just 46 innings last year and 20 this year.

 

Due to the injuries, Williams data jumps all the way back to 2014, where he didn't show hardly any platoon splits in 132 innings of work.

 

He's definitely showing some significant splits of late, but I'm not going to get too caught up in this due to the small sample size and his relative inexperience. A few pitches can really skew the numbers when you're talking 30 batters. That said, I'm not going to discount the recent data. It's something to keep an eye on.