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Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospect – #45 Robert Whalen Scouting Report

By Benjamin Chase

Aug 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Detailed view of Atlanta Braves hat and glove in the dugout before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Detailed view of Atlanta Braves hat and glove in the dugout before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /
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Aug 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Detailed view of Atlanta Braves hat and glove in the dugout before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 25, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Detailed view of Atlanta Braves hat and glove in the dugout before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /

Rob Whalen Scouting Report

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I reviewed 5 of Whalen’s 2015 starts, having to do some extra research to find 4 of the 5. I wanted to get at least one of his starts as a Brave and then multiple of his starts total. In the 5 starts I was able to see, he put up a 1-2 record with a total line of 27 1/3 innings pitched, 2.63 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, and 14/20 BB/K ratio.

Whalen is listed on Baseball Reference at 6’2 and 200 pounds. I’d wager that he’s more around 215-220, but it’s certainly not bad weight. He’s mature physically, much like I mentioned with Lucas Sims earlier. His motion is very easy and repeatable, and he shows his athleticism off the mound, even making a great play on an “excuse me” swinging bunt in one of the games I saw that most pitchers would never have been able to get to. Even though he’s only 6’2, he stays tall in his delivery, releasing the ball at around 3/4 arm slot, but with a very good leg extension, creating a downward plane on his ball trajectory.

One of the major notes on Whalen in 2015 was his struggles in control. In fact, outside of his final appearance where he was injured after the first inning of pitching, he did not have a single appearance where he allowed no walks, and he walked 3 or more hitters in 7 of his 17 other appearances (not counting the final one-inning appearance), which is over 40% of his starts on the season!

As I watched his starts, I noted a few things in his delivery that I believed could lead to this control struggle. While his delivery is consistent, it is not without flaws. Whalen steps just a hair to the first base side with his landing foot as he comes down, which opens up his hips before he’s begun his true delivery to the plate. That forces him to utilize his trunk, hips, and arm for the majority of his control and velocity, which are two things where utilizing legs can be a tremendously stabilizing benefit for a pitcher. If the Braves wanted to work with Whalen on holding that hip closed and landing more dead on with the plate rather than open, he could even find another couple ticks of velocity by utilizing the power in his thick legs.

Whalen has a solid inning-grinding repertoire with a 92-94 MPH four-seam fastball that he uses infrequently, a sinker that sits around 89-92 that is his primary pitch, a tremendously effective slider that has some arm side run, a 12-6 curve ball, and a change up that sits in the 83-85 mph range. Last year’s Mets prospect report by Baseball America listed Whalen’s curve ball as the best in the Mets system, but Whalen has stated in an interview that it was likely the slider they were referring to, not his curve.

Whalen’s sinker has great effect in getting ground balls, as evidenced by his zone percentage of 77% strikes and ground ball percentage of 42%. His best starts were even more drastic with ground ball percentages over 55% and strike percentages over 80%. With a good defense behind him, he can do well, and that was evidenced as I watched his first two starts in Carolina, and you could tell in the second start, arguably his best start of the season, just how comfortable he was with the defense behind him featuring arguably the best outfield defensive trio the Braves system could put together in 2015 with Connor Lien, Keith Curcio, and Dustin Peterson along with high-end defenders like Carlos Franco and Johan Camargo on the left side of the infield.

Next: 2016 outlook

For Whalen, the biggest worry pitch right now is the change up. It really doesn’t distinguish itself enough from the fastball in velocity with only about a 5-8 MPH velocity difference, and its behavior isn’t close to his sinker, so it’s picked up fairly well compared to the sinker, which he throws much more than his four-seamer. I’m curious if a cutter or split-finger may be a better “change” fastball variation pitch for Whalen that could work well with his focus in the lower half of the zone rather than a true change if generating major velocity differences are an issue going forward, but more on that on the next slide.

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