Brandon Pfaadt Awaits Big League Opportunity
Brandon Pfaadt enters the 2023 season as the consensus top pitching prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks farm system. Armed with a mid-90s fastball and three above-average secondary pitches, Pfaadt has the chance to make a huge impact in the D-backs rotation. In 2022 he recorded the highest strikeout total in the minor leagues since 2001 and earned the organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year award. With Arizona's rotation depth depleted due to injuries and poor performances, his chance may be coming up soon.
After being drafted by the D-backs in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft, Pfaadt's stock has risen like helium. In just two seasons, he climbed all the way from Low-A Visalia all the way up to Triple-A Reno. Pfaadt described the grind as a cool experience, getting to play the same game at each level with the same teammates along the way. Now he's current in Reno, awaiting for a big league opportunity to present itself. When he debuts, he'll be the first starting pitcher to debut with Arizona after pitching in all four of the organization's current full-season affiliates since the realignment of the minor leagues in 2021.
After the impressive 2022 season, his off-season focus was "getting stronger and developing my pitches even more than I had last year, working on expanding the zone". His efforts earned him an invite to big league Spring Training, where he had four opportunities to showcase himself against big league competition. "It was awesome" said Pfaadt. "First big league camp, I got to face everybody's top guys and build that confidence that I can compete at that highest level".
In those four games, three of them starts, the D-backs top pitching prospect allowed five runs over 12 innings with 15 strikeouts and four walks. Despite the strong performance, he was re-assigned to minor league camp in favor of more experienced arms. Ultimately the team chose Ryne Nelson as their fifth starter coming out of camp.
With Reno he has made five starts this season, going 2-1 with a 3.91 ERA and a 30/6 strikeout to walk ratio in 25.1 innings. His fastball, slider, and changeup usage rates are very similar to his final 11 starts of the 2022 season. Pfaadt has been working on incorporating more changeups and become a little less reliant on the fastball and slider combination. After only throwing four changeups in his first start, he's averaged 10 in his next four. He'll still rely on the slider as his main secondary pitch, calling it his best feel pitch.
Going from start-to-start Pfaadt tries to keep everything simple and as consistent as possible, whether he's coming off a good or bad start. He combines elements elements of the old school approach of self-scouting by feel, note-taking, and watching video along with analytical information on the opposing hitters he'll likely face in his next outing. Pfaadt keeps a notebook in the dugout, taking notes on hitters and the type of swings they're taking on days he's not pitching. With the notebook, video scouting, and analytical data that shows a hitter's hot and cold zones, he crafts a scouting report that incorporates his strengths and the opposing hitter's weaknesses.
With the minor league schedule featuring six-game series every week, one starting pitcher will face the same team twice. Pfaadt believes having two starts in that week can be beneficial "because you get to go back and look at what you did Tuesday and take it into Sunday. Instead of scouting someone else, you get to scout yourself and the same exact lineup".
One veteran on Reno's roster Pfaadt has been consulting for advice often is reliever Zach McAllister. McAllister has been through it all, coming up as a starter in the Yankees system before becoming a key reliever on a Cleveland squad that nearly won the 2016 World Series, then battling to keep his career alive the past five seasons. The main piece of advice Pfaadt got was to attack the zone, get to pitcher's counts, and trust your stuff.
Pfaadt isn't worried about when he'll make his big league debut, believing "When the time comes, it'll come. I just try to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully it all works out in the end".
You can choose to either watch or listen to the full interview down below:
