Over the last few years, the Atlanta Braves have been loaded with talent that has kept them competitive. They continue their well known track record of player development that has gone back quite a bit. This track record now has benefited the Tigers with Joey Wentz pitching well and their latest acquisition, Justyn-Henry Malloy. Malloy has been on a tear over the last two weeks for the Mud Hens, as he is a big reason why Toledo is off to a 12-5 start and boast one of the better offenses in the International League.
We mentioned him in our Week 2 recap, but we wanted to break down his fast start more and how this benefits the Tigers. How major league ready is Malloy? Let’s find out. (Shout to Jerry Mackinem for organizing the data)
So among the International League average, Malloy is performing well. The metrics on his hard hit balls are well above what the rest of the league is doing. He continues to improve his launch angle and settling into a live drive hitter. As I stated last week, you would like to see the groundball rate go down. This was heading into the series against Columbus.
Line Drive: 27.3% Groundball: 48.5% Flyball: 24.2%
Now after three games so far:
Line Drive: 29.3% Groundball: 41.5% Flyball: 29.3%
What exactly has he done? This was heading into last night’s game, where he had a single up the middle and a home run. He has so far only hit one groundball in the series.
| p_throws | pitcher_name | des | |||||
| R | Jason Bilous | Strikeout | Justyn-Henry Malloy called out on strikes. | ||||
| L | Phillip Diehl | Walk | Justyn-Henry Malloy walks. | ||||
| R | Luis Oviedo | Flyout | Justyn-Henry Malloy flies out to center fielder Chris Roller. | ||||
| R | Luis Oviedo | Single | Justyn-Henry Malloy singles on a ground ball to right fielder Joe Donovan. Zack Short to 2nd. | ||||
| L | Caleb Baragar | Strikeout | Justyn-Henry Malloy called out on strikes. | ||||
| R | Tanner Bibee | Walk | Justyn-Henry Malloy walks. | ||||
| R | Jhon Romero | Double | Justyn-Henry Malloy doubles (3) on a sharp line drive to left fielder Richie Palacios. Zack Short scores. | ||||
| R | Jhon Romero | Walk | Justyn-Henry Malloy walks. | ||||
| R | Brett Daniels | Justyn-Henry Malloy flies out to left fielder Richie Palacios in foul territory. |
All these numbers are early in the season, but if you recall, he moved up three levels last season in the Braves system with just eight games at Triple-A Gwinnett. The numbers indicate that if Detroit needs to call him up, Malloy will be ready.
Jerry McKennan