New Twins pitcher Joe Ryan has a lot of charisma and seems like fun. My wife thinks he looks a bit like "Weird" Al Yankovic, at least upon a quick glance.
He has the ingredients to be a popular player for a long time. But only if he develops, of course, into a good pitcher.
As such, his MLB debut for the Twins on Wednesday was instructive. There was a lot to like in his five innings of work: 89 pitches, 60 for strikes, four out of five innings that were 1-2-3.
But there was also one big thing that he (and whomever is catching him) will need to be cognizant of, and I think it caught up with Ryan in the third inning when he allowed his only walk and only three hits — and, most importantly, the only three runs of the whole game.
The good and the bad, in fact, sort of go hand in hand — which I talked about on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Ryan filled the strike zone (67.4% of his pitches were strikes), which seems to square with his pretty stingy 2.3 walks/9 innings rate in his minor league career. He does it often with a four-seam fastball that isn't necessarily overpowering but is deceptive.
"The fastball looked like guys couldn't see it," Cubs manager David Ross said. "It looks like it's 96 [miles per hour] and it's coming out 91-92. He's got one of those fastballs that hitters don't see."
That will bode well for Ryan at any level, and it's good news for the Twins that at least in his first start it appeared to be the case in the majors.