I figured he deserves his own thread at this point, here is Olney on him today:
"There might be better relievers than Dellin Betances right now, but there is nobody else like him. The Yankees' right-hander's fastball averages 95.5 mph, and on Monday against the Cardinals, he was throwing up to 98 mph. But he throws his primary secondary pitch, his spike curveball, more than he throws his fastball -- 45.5 percent of the time, according to FanGraphs-- and the difference in average velocity is a staggering 13 mph. The disparity is so great that the hitters -- who must anticipate a fastball that good in order to keep up with it -- must essentially guess which pitch he's doing to throw.
When Allen Craig batted against Betances on Monday, for example, he had seen other hitters get the curveball, so he looked for the curve. But when Craig got fastballs, all he could do was ward them off to the right side.
Betances has faced 113 batters this season and struck out 51 of those, with just nine walks, and because hitters are stuck in between, they've mustered a .221 slugging percentage against him.
From the Elias Sports Bureau: Betances got 50 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings, the fewest needed to accumulate 50 strikeouts in a season by a Yankee pitcher in franchise history. The previous record was 31 1/3 innings pitched by Ron Davis in 1981, which was later matched by David Robertson in 2011."
"There might be better relievers than Dellin Betances right now, but there is nobody else like him. The Yankees' right-hander's fastball averages 95.5 mph, and on Monday against the Cardinals, he was throwing up to 98 mph. But he throws his primary secondary pitch, his spike curveball, more than he throws his fastball -- 45.5 percent of the time, according to FanGraphs-- and the difference in average velocity is a staggering 13 mph. The disparity is so great that the hitters -- who must anticipate a fastball that good in order to keep up with it -- must essentially guess which pitch he's doing to throw.
When Allen Craig batted against Betances on Monday, for example, he had seen other hitters get the curveball, so he looked for the curve. But when Craig got fastballs, all he could do was ward them off to the right side.
Betances has faced 113 batters this season and struck out 51 of those, with just nine walks, and because hitters are stuck in between, they've mustered a .221 slugging percentage against him.
From the Elias Sports Bureau: Betances got 50 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings, the fewest needed to accumulate 50 strikeouts in a season by a Yankee pitcher in franchise history. The previous record was 31 1/3 innings pitched by Ron Davis in 1981, which was later matched by David Robertson in 2011."
