5-9-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Back home for a weekend series against the long-time rival Atlanta Braves, the Bucs will face off against the not-so-elder, Bryce Elder, who enters play today with a 5.06 ERA through his 32 innings of work this season.
Elder had some early season struggles as he allowed 12 runs through his first 15 innings but over his last three games has a 3.18 ERA over 17 innings pitched, including a strong outing last turn against the Dodgers where he struck out Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in order to lead off the game.
Elder doesn’t have over-powering stuff with a 4-seam/sinker averaging 91-92 MPH with a slider and changeup both in the mid-80s velocity range – but what he does do well is generate ground-balls with his slider/sinker heavy approach.
Against Elder, lefties are batting just .111 and slugging .222 versus his slider, which he locates on the lower inside part of the zone to avoid barrels and resulting in weak contact.
Righties have had more success in those situations with a .243 BA against the slider though he uses his sinker as the primary offering in those situations and that has a .300 oBA for right handed hitters.
Surprisingly, righties have had more success against Elder this year with a .833 OPS compared to .762 for lefties.
Given that Elder is more of a pitch-to-contact arm over a swing-and-miss guy, one would hope the Bucs can make some contact against him and find grass on batted balls.
Lefties will want to hold for high heat. as they are batting .320 and slugging .520 against Elder’s fastballs. Righties should target his sinkers, looking to drop the barrel slightly to change would-be ground-outs into well-struck line drives.
Elder is a beatable opponent and, with a new skipper officially at the helm, we get the first look at if this team has any fight left in them.
Steel City Pirates 