Player Breakdowns: April 5th
Matt Manning, Christian Scott, & Notable Performers
Matt Manning (DET):
I wrote about Manning a few days ago in my FB - Velocity and iVB Differentials post before he got the call to make the start in the 2nd half of the back-to-back yesterday afternoon. What was notable about Manning was that in his first start at AAA, he gained 2.5 inches in iVB on his fastball — up from 16.6 inches in 2023 to 19.1 inches in 2024. He only threw 33 fastballs in that first start so I’d need to see about 50-70 more pitches from him to see if this is a sustained difference. Well, we got that in his first start in the big leagues in 2024. Manning should be in the rotation at this point and this start didn’t do anything to squash those thoughts.
It was a no-hitter watch after the 4th inning, but we all knew Detroit wasn’t going to let Manning pitch more than 90-95 pitches so his final line was 5.2 IP 0H 0ER 4BB 3K. On the surface that walk total doesn’t look good but if Brandon Nimmo didn’t exist, Manning would’ve only walked 1. He gave up 3 walks to Nimmo, alone, like he was giving him the Barry Bonds treatment. He didn’t want anything to do with Nimmo. Other than that, he generated a ton of soft contact leading to easy outs, and was mostly cruising throughout the afternoon.
Manning was mostly 4-seamer (41 pitches) and sweeper (40 pitches) with his slider (7 pitches) and curve (7 pitches) mixed in after the first time through the order.
Now — if you want to know if the iVB differential was sustained — the short answer is yes. Manning averaged 93.2 mph on his fastball — T - 95.8 mph — with 20.0 inches of iVB. His VAA was -4.4 degrees with nearly 7 feet of extension.
On his sweeper, Manning averaged 82.9 mph and, again, 7 feet of extension.
The iVB gains from last year have the arrow pointing upward on Manning. He didn’t elicit many whiffs, but he did make the Mets uncomfortable and generated a lot of weak contact. A Starling Marte line out to 2nd base and a Tyrone Taylor flyout to right field were the hardest hit balls against Manning at 95.6 mph and 98.9 mph, respectively. He didn’t allow anything off the bat that was hit harder than 98.9 mph in his five and two-thirds innings of work.
Here are Manning's Whiffs+CS on video:
Here are the Batted Balls In Play against Manning:
All in all, it was a good outing for Manning, although the command was shoddy at times, mostly during Brandon Nimmo at-bats — That guy isn’t going to chase and probably has the highest sprint speed from home to 1st on walks. We’ll see what Detroit does, but Manning should’ve earned himself another start.
Now, let’s break down a Mets prospect at AAA who had a great start, albeit with a few bumps and bruises late into his outing.