What to expect from Ty Madden

The month of August continues to be a month filled with new faces in the organization, as right-hander Ty Madden (ranked 18th on our Top 31)  will make his major league debut on Monday in the final game of the four-game series against the White Sox. Madden will join Trey Sweeney, Jace Jung (August 16) and Brant Hurter (August 4) and he will be the 10th player overall this season to make his debut.

While the metrics on Madden over the last month on the surface show a high ERA and a lot of hard contact, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch provided some insight to the beat writers in Chicago on Sunday. 

“Those adjustments you made in Triple-A are why you’re here,” Hinch said, recounting his meeting with Madden. “The challenge will be the adjustments that we ask you to make at this level. The adjustments are going to continue for the rest of your career. Ty is determined to be a really good pitcher. In order to do that, he’s got to be open to adjustments, and when he showed that, we rewarded it.”

This is really interesting.

His FIP (2.68) has been half his ERA (5.63) last four games. 35.9% K% and 4.9% BB% in that same time.

What’s super interesting — an incredibly low 58.9% LOB. He could come up and be really good. https://t.co/Zl4LiwNADd

— JerryMackinem (@OPSenheimer) August 25, 2024

Since he was drafted by Detroit, Ty has taken to instruction well. First, he changed his mechanics from his days at the University of Texas, putting his hands over his head when he winds up and throws, something that helped with balance as he comes off the mound. Madden has swing and miss stuff, when he can spot his fastball at the top of the zone, in addition to his slider to change eye levels.

Here is the swing data on Madden as the changeup as his splitter, a pitch he learned earlier this year.

For Madden to be effective as a starter, he needs to perform better during the second and third times through the batting order and consistently generate swings and misses with his pitch mix. Chris Fetter and his staff, who have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to develop pitchers, will need to identify ways to improve Madden’s numbers against right-handed batters. Right-handers have hit .318/.368/.619 with 12 home runs in 204 plate appearances against him this season.

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