Aiden Cooke - Taijuan Walker Impressed in his First Outing. Can He Repeat Against the Phillies?

    After a lost series in Philadelphia, the Mets needed a win to get to .500, and Taijuan Walker delivered in his team debut. He threw 6 strong innings, allowing 2 earned runs, 4 hits, and 2 walks while striking out 4 batters on 87 total pitches. It was a quality start, but the Mets' offensive woes prevented him from picking up a win. In fact, Walker was in line for the loss when he left the game. 

    He got off to a roaring start, pumping three four-seamers by Corey Dickerson for a strikeout to start the day and getting two swings and misses in the process. The fastballs registered at 96, 96, and 97 MPH, and that pitch averaged 95.4 MPH over the course of the game. Walker carried the momentum from his first batter throughout most of the game, looking fantastic as he faced the minimum number of hitters through four hitless innings. Taijuan was working efficiently, too, needing only 46 pitches. Brian Anderson broke up the no-hit bid with a single in the top of the fifth and the Marlins got to Walker in the 6th, plating two runs. 

    Seeing Walker's velocity up so high is certainly an encouraging sign. He hasn't averaged at least 95 MPH on his fastball since 2014 and has since suffered injuries and undergone Tommy John surgery. Last season, it sat at 93.2 MPH. 

    

    In fact, all of his pitches saw a large uptick in velocity. While his fastball had noticeable gains, it was his slider that saw the largest increase in velocity, averaging 2.7 MPH more than last season. Walker was definitely more comfortable using this pitch as well, tossing it 27 times (out of 87 total pitches) for a rate of 31%, about 10% more than he had ever used it. It got 4 whiffs on 11 swings, as well as 3 called strikes.

    Walker's sinker had improved results, likely due to its change in location. He usually pounds the upper portion of the strike zone with four-seamers, but last year a lot of his sinkers were also thrown in the upper part of the zone. He was able to bring it down more, using it in unison with his fastball to fool hitters. He only used it 19 times, but still managed to get 9 called strikes with it.

    

    His splitter looked good in limited action as well. It was only used 6 times in total, though, with two coming in the 5th inning and the other four in the 6th. Walker seemed well-versed in his scouting reports, as four of his six splitters were thrown to Anderson, who has struggled mightily against splitters throughout his career (more than any other pitch). It was good to see Taijuan use his repertoire intelligently, especially in his third bout with Anderson. Walker got two swings and misses with his splitter, one of which ended the at-bat, to close out his day and stop the bleeding against a Marlins lineup that was stringing together some hits and scored a pair of runs in the 6th inning.

    Surprisingly, Walker's velocity did not dwindle as he went on; in fact, he was actually throwing harder than he averaged over the course of the game. And although he surrendered two runs, longevity shouldn't be a main concern with Walker. He is not someone who will throw deep into games, especially after the injuries he had recently in his career. From 2018-19 he accumulated just 14 innings. Last season he threw 53 innings across 11 starts. In a fully healthy Mets rotation, he'll be pitching out of the 5th spot, behind deGrom, Syndergaard, Carrasco, and Stroman. Plus, there is plenty of depth behind these arms in Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto, and David Peterson, all of whom are capable of making spot starts or throwing multiple innings out of the bullpen. 

    Walker will be facing a much better Phillies lineup in his next start. He has only started against them once in his career, pitching 6 innings of 1-run ball while striking out 8 and walking 2 in a September matchup last season. The Phillies will be facing a different Taijuan this year, one that is adding more velocity (+2 MPH increase between his last start and his start against the Phils) but losing movement. He also mixed his pitches much more effectively in his last game, throwing his fastball, slider, and sinker each more than 1/5 of the time. Hopefully, he'll be able to repeat his past success against them with this different approach.