Four Under The Radar Atlanta Braves Trade Targets
By Fred Owens
Sam Moll
I noticed this morning that teams are finally talking about Oakland’s 31-year-old lefty Sam Moll. Welcome to the crowd. Unlike Bummer, Moll is a rental owed roughly $245K over the remainder of the season.
He came in to pitch against the Braves on May 30, with the game tied 1-1, struck out Michael Harris II to end the eighth, and started the ninth by getting Acuna to ground out to the shortstop and striking out Matt Olson.
Statcast puts Moll’s barrel rate in the 99th percentile, his xBA in the 91st, and his xSLG in the 97th. Opponents are batting .254 against his sinker, .213 against a slider that it’s become fashionable to call a sweeper, and .250 against his four-seam fastball.
Moll’s thrown 36 innings at a 4.50 ERA, 3.20 FIP, and allowed one homer. He posts a 27.3% K-rate, 10.6% walk rate, a 29.3% chase rate, and a 22.3% WHIFF rate.
Like Bummer, he carries a higher-than-average .337 BAbip, helped there by a defense with a –9 DRS, the worst in baseball by that measure. Statcast is more generous, making the Athletics 20th with –3 OAA.
Tanner Scott
The Atlanta Braves have seen a lot of Marlins’ lefty Tanner Scott, they touched him up for back-to-back homers from Ozzie Albies and Eddie Rosario in April, but the rest of the league hasn’t had much luck facing Scott.
IN 48 IP for the Fish, he’s struck out 71, walked 18, and allowed two homers while pitching to a 5.91 ERA and 1.083 WHIP. On Statcast, his percentile block is a sea of red;
- .255 xSLG and 2560 rpm Fastball spin – 99th percentile
- xERA/xwOBA, 37% K% 98th percentile
- 3% Barrel Rate 97the percentile
- WHIFF and Hard hit ball rates 96th percentile
- 85.8 Average exit velocity 94th percentile
- .194 xBA and Chase rate 93rd percentile
- Fastball velocity 90th percentile.
He features a 96mph four-seam fastball with a 30.6 WHIFF% he uses to punch the ticket 23% of the time and an 89mph slider with a 41.1 WHIFF% that punches a ticket 33.6% of the time.
Batters Hit .224 off his heater and .184 off the slider. The league bats .200/.286/.271/.557 against Scott, who induced a groundball on 50% of balls in play and allowed only one of 11 inherited runners to score.
Scott’s 29, earns the remainder of a one-year $2.83M contract this year and is under control through 2024 via arbitration.