Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on Pitcher Chad Sobotka

Scouting Report

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Size/Delivery

Sobotka is listed at 6’7 and 200 pounds. He’s long-legged and lean, though I’d say 200 is on the light side, by probably 15-20 pounds even. He works exclusively from the stretch out of the bullpen.

From the stretch, Sobotka brings his left knee chest high and twists his left hip in, giving him just a moment of hesitation before he delivers to the plate. He then takes a long stride toward home plate, open just a hair toward first base in his landing spot before delivering with a high 3/4 to almost pure overhand delivery.

How much that arm slot contributed to his back injury from college or his shoulder issues that delayed the start to his 2016 season is anyone’s guess, but I did note that when he misses his landing spot, his torque doesn’t get focused on his arm or shoulder, it seems to focus in his back.

Pitches

Sobotka uses a fastball that sits 92-95 and touched 97 in one appearance out of the bullpen after sitting about 90-94 and touching 95-96 as a starter in 2015. The ball has some arm-side tail moving in on right-handed hitters and sink as well. He does feature a four-seam and a two-seam fastball both, but he works predominantly with the two-seam fastball. The four-seam fastball is more straight in its actions, but I did note that it also seemed to sit more at the top end of his velocity, so it may be a pitch he throws to “air it out”, as he often uses it as an eye-adjuster, throwing it up n the zone with peak velocity.

His slider sits in the 79-82 range, and in reviewing his 2015 starts that I could find against the 2016 games, it was notable how much the slider has come along. He had a 6-12 inch break from the 2015 video I watched, but frequently, he would get over a foot drop in the ball that truly baffled hitters and became a strikeout pitch for him, something he simply didn’t feature as a starter. He does still not quite seem to have a hang on his increased break, and when featuring the pitch more in the middle of the zone, he’ll leave the ball higher than he should, allowing it to get driven. Overall, it was one of the more impressive sliders I’ve seen in the Braves system this season.

Last is his change, which worked in the 82-85 range in games that gave velocities that I saw, but it was a pitch that he used infrequently out of the bullpen. I got better looks at the pitch in 2015 views, and it’s not a bad pitch, but it does have a lot of work needed, so it would not be surprising if he ends up polishing it just enough to be a “show me” third pitch to keep hitters honest and off of his other offerings.

Video

Next: Future outlook