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Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on LHP Michael Mader

By Benjamin Chase

Apr 28, 2016; Phoenix, AZ, USA; A ball sits on the mound prior to the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals at Chase Field. The Diamondbacks won 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 28, 2016; Phoenix, AZ, USA; A ball sits on the mound prior to the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals at Chase Field. The Diamondbacks won 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /
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Future Outlook


He throws with the opposite hand, but the guy that really strikes me as a great comp for Mader is current Cardinals starter Mike Leake. Leake is a guy who is perhaps not sexy, but he works over hitters with solid pitches, getting weak contact, even if it is getting the ball in the air rather than on the ground. Leake lives on similar stuff, getting lots of weak ground balls on pitches that get driven hard if he misses his spot just a bit.

Like Leake, Mader is not likely to ever be a guy that is striking out 25% of hitters he faces, living on hitters making weak contact. While Leake works with a true sinker and a slider and cutter combo, so their pitch mix is not exactly similar, their approaches to hitters are very similar.

Next: Braves Minor League Database

While Mader’s stuff is not elite by any design, he’s a guy in the same lines as Robert Whalen or Jed Bradley that has above-average stuff that could play up very well with work on his sequencing. Mississippi’s pitching coach Dennis Lewallyn is excellent in working with pitchers just like that as we saw with the two aforementioned pitchers in 2016. I would imagine Mader starts in AA in 2017, but it would not surprise me if the Braves promote him aggressively with his handedness and proximity to the major leagues, so he could end up in AAA and even the major leagues quickly.

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