Starter Spotlight: Keys to Attack Zac Gallen

7-26-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Pirates head to the desert to face the defending NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks, and they begin the series facing the Dbacks Cy Young finalist in starting pitcher, Zac Gallen.

The bespectacled Gallen has been a workhorse as the ace of the Snakes staff over the past few years, culminating in a 3.47 ERA over 210 innings last season before tossing another 33.2 frames in the playoffs – but it seems like the workload is starting to catch up with him a bit, missing time earlier this season with injury and dealing with some ineffectiveness as of late.

Over the 2024 season, Gallen has a 3.64 ERA over his 16 starts this year but has REALLY struggled lately, allowing 13 runs over his 4 games this month – a 6.50 ERA through 18 July innings.

Gallen has a 4-pitch mix: low-90s 4-seam, low-80s knuckle-curve, high-80s changeup and a mid-80s slider.

He works indiscriminately with the fastball/curve to hitters working the heat high and the curve dropping low and under the zone. He works in the changeup breaking down and in against lefties while utilizing the slider mostly when facing right handed hitters, with similar down and in location. 

All of his pitches have been hit hard this year but he’s gotten some luck as the expected values for nearly all of his offerings are higher than the actual results.

His fastball in particular has an average exit velocity of 94 MPH and his average EV across all offerings (91.4) is the highest in MLB among pitchers with 200+ batted ball events.

He’s gotten by avoiding barrels and generating a good amount of ground balls but if Pirates hitters are geared up for the low-velo fastball – which Gallen throws ~50% of the time – they have a chance to drive the ball in that hot desert air.

Let’s Go Bucs!