The young San Francisco Giants pitcher has had a mixed start to his MLB career, but has already shown enough to impress some.
Eno Sarris from The athlete I looked at the league’s pitchers who recently made their debuts and found that guys are “set up for success” based on what they’ve shown early on. Giants rookie Hayden Birdsong was one of the pitchers highlighted.
“(Birdsong) has two really good breaking balls, a feel for spin and is 96 on the fastball. That’s the kind of package you can dream about, with elite potential – all it takes is a breakout on the fastball and he could suddenly be really good,” Sarris said. “That was his story in the minor leagues, too: swings forward that catapulted him onto the scene, followed by steps back. Two steps forward, one step back.”
His fastball was actually his worst pitch. According to FanGraphs, it’s -3.1 runs above average, meaning batters are recognizing it very well.
The speed was good, he didn’t have to work on that at all. The problem was always finding control.
As bad as his fastball was, his curveball was much better. He used it and his changeup significantly more than he did this season in Triple-A, although he struggled with the fastball.
In his first 10 career starts, the Illinois native has a 4.57 ERA. That number has skyrocketed after a rough patch at the start of August, but overall things are going very solid for the rookie.
In his first two starts of the month, he allowed 12 runs in just 6.1 innings pitched. In his first six appearances, he had a 2.97 ERA and things were looking great.
He’s a guy who consistently gets five strikeouts per game, but also set a career high of 12 strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies.
Strikeouts have been an important part of his game since college and a major reason he was selected by San Francisco in the sixth round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Eastern Illinois University.
If he can get his fastball working a little better, the Giants’ rotation could get a nice boost as they finalize things for next year.
He and Kyle Harrison are a duo with great potential that could lead San Francisco through the rest of the 2020s.
