House That Hank Built
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Scouting report on Atlanta Braves top prospect Ian Anderson (RHP)

By Jake Mastroianni

KANSAS CITY, MO - JULY 02: Baseballs on the field before the game between the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 2, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Brian Davidson/Getty Images)
KANSAS CITY, MO - JULY 02: Baseballs on the field before the game between the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 2, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Brian Davidson/Getty Images) /
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26 Jul 1998: General view of a ball sitting on the pitcher’s mound during a game between the Seattle Mariners and the Baltimore Orioles at the Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. The Mariners defeated the Orioles 10-4. Mandatory Credit: Doug Pensinger
26 Jul 1998: General view of a ball sitting on the pitcher’s mound during a game between the Seattle Mariners and the Baltimore Orioles at the Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. The Mariners defeated the Orioles 10-4. Mandatory Credit: Doug Pensinger /

The game

Ian Anderson entered the game on Sunday with a 4.04 ERA in 35.2 innings pitched with 47 strikeouts and 28 walks.

That high walk rate is obviously concerning, but that’s not who Ian has been in the past and that’s not who he was on Sunday as he didn’t walk anybody over 5.2 innings.

Here is the entire line for Anderson: 5.2 IP, 7 hits, 0 walks, 1 earned run, and 5 strikeouts.

One thing that really stood out for me in this game was all the flyouts. I’m not sure if that is the norm for Ian Anderson or if this was an outlier, but 10 of the 17 outs he recorded were in the air.

He obviously got five outs via strikeouts and just two groundball outs.

This could also just be the approach of the Barons hitters. It seemed like they were trying not to fall behind in the count as they swung at a lot of first pitches.

With the launch angle craze in the game, it worries me a little that Anderson might be relying on flyball outs.

Anderson really breezed through the first five innings outside of a two on, two out jam in the second. He only had two 1-2-3 innings, though.

It looked like the righty started to run out of gas in the sixth inning. He entered the inning at 85 pitches and after getting the first two batters of the inning out, he was at just over 90 pitches.

Yermin Mercedes, the Barons best hitter and clean-up hitter, then got a single off Anderson. The next batter, Gavin Sheets, followed with a 7-pitch at-bat that ended with a single off the shortstop’s glove.

Mercedes and Sheets were a combined 4-for-6 off Anderson in this game.

Anderson was given one more chance to get out of the jam, but after that long at-bat with Sheets, he gave up the game-tying hit on the first pitch of the at-bat to Rutherford and then was pulled.

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