San Francisco Giants: What to Expect from Tyler Beede

The San Francisco Giants have likely been forced to play a hand they just simply aren’t ready for. Tyler Beede will make his first career big league start today, and ready or not, here he comes.

The San Francisco Giants have had issues in recent years with getting their top prospects to arrive in the big leagues without stalling out. Tyler Beede is one of them.

Beede has been at the top of the prospects list since he was drafted in the first round of the 2014 draft. However, the Giants were likely hoping for a quicker progression to his career, maybe something along the lines of what Andrew Suarez has done.

Suarez has progressed to the next level, mid-season, every year of his career so far. The 2015 draft pick jumped from High-A to AA in 2016, and AA to AAA in 2017. It took him two years to get to the point of being ready for a call-up.

Beede on the other hand had to stick around Richmond for an extra half a season before he could make the jump to AAA. Beede struggled against AAA competition last year, as he had a 4.79 ERA over 19 starts. He has a high walk rate for someone who strikes people out so little.

Over his minor league career he averages just over seven strikeouts per nine innings. Not what you would want from a guy trying to establish himself as front of the rotation threat, as you would expect from a pitcher being drafted with his pedigree.

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This spring we got a chance to see him in a few starting roles here and there, and it didn’t go as many had hoped. Beede had a 10.80 ERA In his four appearances. He gave up 14 hits in 8 innings. But if Shohei Ohtani has taught us anything about “spring numbers” this week, you should probably ignore that.

Beede is going to bring to the table an extremely repeatable arm motion and delivery. He doesn’t have much of a wind-up, but “explodes” (if you will), towards the plate. He throws his fastball in the low-to-mid nineties, but can reach back and touch 96 plus.

His changeup, slider, and curve are all average offerings as well. The ability to repeat his arm motion helps keep batters off balance, as you don’t see a “tell” from him as he delivers each pitch, regardless of what type it is.

He’s not a strikeout guy, as the numbers clearly indicate. Despite pitching to contact, he’s very hard to make hard contact against, which is a positive thing. If you want a quick comparison, think of him as a right-handed Ty Blach. He pitches to contact, and keeps it in the ballpark. It’s virtually the same dude, different arm he’s throwing with.

So what should you expect from Beede in his first career start? I’m honestly not sure. If Derek Holland can go out and largely dominate a red-hot D-Backs lineup, that could bode well for Beede. The question of whether or not he’ll stick is an interesting one, but not for this article.

Next: Holland deals, but offense goes by wayside in loss to D-Backs

Beede will make his debut tonight, as the Giants and D-Backs face off. First pitch is at 7:15pm PT. The Giants will go up against a revitalized Patrick Corbin.