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Miami Marlins: Evaluating Kyle Barraclough’s debut

By Charlie Clarke |
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On July 24th, Steve Cishek was traded to the Cardinals for Kyle Barraclough, a Double-A reliever. Two weeks later, Barraclough made his major league debut for the Marlins, pitching the eighth inning in Miami’s 6-3 in Atlanta. 

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Barraclough, pronounced ‘Bear Claw,’ retired all three batters he faced last night, impressing in his first appearance at the big league level. This season in the minors, Barraclough pitched in 38 games (43 2/3 IP), sported a 3-0 record, 2.06 ERA, .185 opponents batting average, and 14 saves.

His achilles heal is walks. While he struck out 60 batters in those 43 2/3 innings, he managed to walk 30. Barraclough discussed his command with Sun Sentinel’s Craig Davis.

“It was a lot of what I was doing in Springfield, just trying to throw strikes, mainly,” Barraclough said. “That’s kind of been my Achilles heel. If I’m in the zone, I’m good; if not, it’s kind of back and forth.”

Control didn’t seem to be a problem last night for Barraclough. Let’s go through each at bat in the youngster’s debut.

Barraclough faced Joey Terdoslavich to begin the bottom of the eighth. He led off Terdoslavich with a low, 84-mph slider, and got him to bite for strike one. Barraclough proceeded to show his velocity, pumping a 96-mph fastball in the zone for strike two.

His next pitch clocked in at 97, forcing Terdoslavich to slice the heater foul. Finally, the rookie finished Atlanta’s utility man off with a slider in the dirt, being blocked by the catcher Realmuto.

The first at bat looked solid for Barraclough, who made Joey Terdoslavich look overmatched. Confidence was key, as the 25-year old righty wasn’t afraid to pound the zone.

After the ball of Barraclough’s first major league strikeout was tossed into the visiting dugout, Miami’s newest reliever led off Adonis Garcia with a missed slider inside. Garcia was swept off the plate as Barraclough showed his tendency to lose control.

However, ‘Bear Claw’ recovered, pounding the zone with a pair of fastballs, the first one clocked at 97, forcing Garcia to lose his bat, and second at 98. He came back with a 87-mph slider, one which Garcia fouled off. Barraclough hung the next slider over the plate, but forced Garcia to ground out to third for the second out.

Todd Cunningham stood as Barraclough’s next opponent. He led Cunningham off with a low slider, and induced a line out to Dee Gordon for the third out.

Watching this inning, I figured out that Kyle Barraclough can be legit. Yes, 11 pitches is a minuscule sample size, however, he proved his worth to me. He missed his spot just once, which is pretty good for a debut.

Barraclough also made Atlanta’s hitters look overmatched. Granted, it wasn’t the meat of the Braves’ order, but they’re major leaguers nonetheless.

The Cishek trade could have, and maybe should have, yielded better return. However, Barraclough is definitely a talented pitcher, no question about it.

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