Continuing along with their youth movement in the pitching staff, the Athletics called up 22-year-old Vin Mazzaro last week to make his first major league start. He didn't disappoint.On Tuesday, Mazzaro threw 6.1 innings of shutout baseball and only gave up three hits. It was a great start where he earned his first victory, but his four walks with only one strikeout weren't ideal.
The A's threw him back out there again on Sunday and Mazzaro impressed again. In 7.1 innings of work he allowed five hits and, once again, did not allow an earned run. He also struck out four batters and walked none; seemingly fixing his control issues from his first start.
After two starts, Mazzaro has a 2-0 record with a 0.00 ERA in 13.2 innings of work. He's struck out five and walked four. And now you're wondering... "When can I pick him up in mixed leagues?"
In doing so you'll need to prepare for a few bumps in the road, but the answer is right now. Here's why.
Mazzaro uses a 94-MPH fastball, which he throws about 67% of the time, in conjunction with a slider (his second pitch) and a change up. His fastball has a lot of movement on it, but he's still more of a pitch to contact pitcher instead of a power pitcher.
Last season in combined Double-A and Triple-A work he won 15 games and posted a 2.74 ERA. In his 171 innings of work he struck out 131 and walked 45. That's a great stat line but it was a marked improvement from 2007 where he had a 5.33 ERA with a 1.62 strikeout to walk ratio (115:71 K:BB). The improvement from '07 to '08 came with his reduced walk rate. That reduced walk rate is going to have to continue for Mazzaro's success to continue. Especially since he's a pitch to contact guy who isn't a ground ball pitcher.
So, knowing that Mazzaro is going to need to keep his walks down to succeed. And knowing that he's, more than likely, going to start giving up some fly balls (his fly ball rate is 52.4%) that travel farther than they have thus far (read: home runs) you need to know that picking him up isn't going to be smooth sailing 24/7 like his first week on the job. That being said, he's still going to do a lot more good than bad with the baseball this season, and in the future. If you have an easily droppable player on your fantasy baseball roster in any format, think about signing Vin Mazzaro.
