Mets Season in Review: Hansel Robles

Room for improvement?

Take a look at this about Robles and his pitches from brooksbaseball.net:

"Basic description of 2016 pitches compared to other RHP: His fourseam fastball generates more whiffs/swing compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers, has well above average velo and has slight armside run. His slider results in somewhat more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ sliders. His change is thrown extremely hard. His sinker (take this with a grain of salt because he’s only thrown 4 of them in 2016) is basically never swung at and missed compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, is an extreme flyball pitch compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, is blazing fast and has slight armside run."

And here, I believe, is where you get that overall 3.48 ERA, one we know he can improve on.

While his fastball is first rate and above average for swing-and-miss around the league, his slider and rarely thrown sinker are inducing too many flyballs. We’ve seen these pitches act so nasty, and if he can gain consistency with those, he can be as dependable as anybody in our bullpen, and is this close to Terry Collins trusting him in the backend any day of the week. If he can keep his emotions in check and his focus in tune, this kid can do anything.

Come on, Hansel. You know we’re all pushing for you… This kid’s a beast!!!