Can Ziegler keep it up?

He didn’t start throwing sidearm until last year, so you can throw out all his stats before that. Chad Bradford is 34 this year and still going strong. Dan Quisenberry was effective until age 36.

Brad has a nice “frisbee slider” as one announcer called it tonight, a fastball a bit faster than Bradford’s (~85 usually, seen it at 88 vs. LAA). Change-up is his most effective pitch IMO. I don’t think too many sidearm pitchers throw a change.

Now obviously he’s not going to continue to put up a <1.00 ERA, but stats similar to the Quiz or Bradford I think are possible.

For those who will say once the league sees him more, they’ll hit him better, I’m not sure that is true. The Halos have seen him a few times and they still couldn’t hit him. I think Vlad is 0 for 4 against him. I think he’ll be a solid set-up guy with his extremely high ground ball rates and his ability to keep the ball in the park. Plus, he’s got himself on his fantasy baseball teams, so what more incentive could he have?

A’s would be smart to get Street back in as closer in September to raise his value back up and then deal him in the off-season. If that’s the case, I see Joey Divine becoming their closer and Brad being the set-up guy.

As long as he can do that and get strikes called consistently, he’s going to be tough. Some of those grounders will make it through the holes but most of them are being handled with a good defense behind him. That’s another key for him, same with any ground ball pitcher.

After he gave up a run against Tampa Bay last week he said he was having trouble finding his release point. When you look at what he’s done already, yeah – it’s an amazing streak for anyone at any stage of a career, but this is only his second full season throwing this way. There are bound to be days like that where he leaves the ball up more than usual.

Right now Ziegler throws almost entirely fastballs, so his other pitches are used to keep hitters honest or have something different to show them when he needs to. As long as he can locate well he’ll always have an advantage if for no other reason hitters just aren’t as used to the trajectory his pitches have.

In the future, I see Ziegler’s value being more important as a high-pressure setup man. He’s been used in situations where the A’s NEED to keep runs off the board, whether it’s coming in to try to get an out or a double play or throwing an inning or two to get to the closer. Saving him only for closing situations is nice for the idea of him as a finisher but I think Devine’s better for that role.