Starter Spotlight: My Rematch With Andre

7-22-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Last time Andre Pallante faced off against the Pirates, he came away with a no decision despite tossing 7 innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball in an eventual 3-2 win by the Cardinals. It was the best performance of the season for the Red Birds righty and one the Bucs hope is not repeated when they rematch tonight in Pittsburgh.

I covered most of what fans need to know about Pallante during the preview last time around but key things are that he is a ground-ball MACHINE! In his matchup on July 4th, he got 5 strikeouts, 6 fly outs and 12 groundouts (including one double play).

Only Framber Valdez of the Astros and Jose Soriano of the Angels have a higher ground-ball percentage among qualified starting pitchers than Pallante, who also is one of the best in baseball at generating weak contact in both average exit velocity (86.6MPH – 10th lowest with minimum 200 batters faced) and barrel rate (4.5%, tied for 3rd lowest in MLB).

Pallante rolls fastball-heavy arsenal as his mid-90s sinker/4-seam encompass over 70% of his total pitches thrown. He works high with the 4-seam and down with the sinker, mixing in the high-80s slider and high-70s knuckle-curve down in the zone to change speeds and induce further ground balls.

He was touching 97 on the heater last time around but Bucs bats whiffed just twice in 22 swings against the offering with an average exit velocity of 90.4 MPH.

The 4-seam definitely should be the pitch for hitters to key in on today. They’ve seen him before and they know what to expect as they try to get another winning streak started up against the division rival Cardinals.

Let’s Go Bucs!