Dodgers New Reliever Brusdar Graterol Happy With His New Team
It’s easy to forget what a talented pitcher the Dodgers acquired in Brusdar Graterol, given that the Dodgers also acquired Mookie Betts. Graterol appears to be excited for his new change of scenery, as well.
I want to thank my new family, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for this opportunity so I can continue doing what I love!
For the Dodgers fans, I am super excited to greet many of you in Arizona this spring training ! I am going to wear my Dodgers jersey with pride and give my all.2020
— brusdar graterol (@BrusdarGraterol) February 11, 2020
Diplomatic And Yet Sincere
Obviously this is a common and gracious thing for a player to do when he is moved. Still, this is a really great tweet that is easily going to ingratiate Brusdar Graterol with the Dodger faithful. It is rather unique to see a player talk about being excited to greet many fans in Spring Training. This is a necessary part of the life for MLB players, but we often can take for granted that their graciousness in doing this should be appreciated.
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[adace-ad id=”119376″]What Kind Of Stuff Does Graterol Have?
Heat, heat, and heat! Well sort of. Brusdar Graterol’s sinker is his bread and butter.
Brusdar Graterol, Unfair 100mph Sinker. ? pic.twitter.com/oFc6MLrOhe
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 22, 2019
He throws it 49% of the time. His other most used pitch is his slider (30%) which is where the difference might be. He has a changeup and a four-seamer that are not used very much. His slider doesn’t have quite the lateral movement a slider should have yet. It tends to dip vertically. As a reliever, his nearly triple-digit sinker can be used quite liberally.
https://twitter.com/AugustineMLB/status/1226884612842049537
If the Dodgers coaching staff can find a way for Graterol’s slider to be more effective, he will be an absolutely lights out reliever.
More on Graterol’s arsenal coming up in an article on DodgersNation.com soon.
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I hope Graterol is healthy because a near 100 MPH sinker (which May also has) is a beautiful thing in a live ball era. There are too many routine flyouts going over the fence. But the hardest hit grounder in the history of baseball never cleared the fence. Viva la sinker.
I dunno, I think Gatorade needs to lose some weight. Of course Alice has been on me for years to do the same, but hard to do when you drive a bus in Brooklyn.
Sometimes photos can add a few (or thirty) pounds. He kind of looks like a righthanded Fernando Valenzuela. Hope he gets similar results.
TRY NO-CAL PIZZA !
To the moon with you Ralph.
Good to hear that Graterol is happy to come to LA because I don’t Betts is. I haven’t heard a peep, or tweet from him. I’m sure he will be a one and done rental for the boys in blue.
I can think of twenty seven million reasons for Beets to be happy wherever he plays.
CB I agree I think he’s going to be a Machado where he shows no excitement or happiness to be here and goes through the motions
He’s never really been a go through the motions type of guy. He seems to be a gamer, with passion and energy. Maybe I’m being optimistic, but I don’t see him in anyway similar to the demeanor of Machado.
He will go to the highest bidder. And considering the Yankees and Red Sox are out of it and the Dodgers have 500 mill per year in revenue and no long term money on the books…. I wouldn’t bet against them, that’s for sure
i think the biggest holes the Dodgers filled this off-season is the pen. Sure the new guys are all a roll of the dice in some way, but i don’t feel iffy about them as seasons past. Plus the return of pitchers throwing a hard sinkers is very big. Tommy John was a marvel, he threw fairly hard post his (aka TJ surgery) but his sinker seemed to get even “heavier” breaking mire bats. Been wondering where the art of the sinker and screwball have gone. The sinker isn’t difficult on an arm at all really. Then with the lower innings thrown these days there has to be a new Fernando or Mike Marshall out there.
To me rotation is huge question mark but has tons of promising arms. Now batting order AND defense looks rock solid. Of course we all know that’s were Roberts can wreck this team… let them alone, let them play the channel your inner Tommy & make those key moves at the right moment….of course then we’ll get on him about getting too “cute” out there. So it will be back to real Dodger baseball again.
This article says Graterol is trying to get more lateral movement on his slider. That’s OK. It keeps the ball off the sweet spot on the bat, and generates chases off the plate, but vertical downward movement is what gets the ground outs and K’s. Sinkers are great. Hard downward moving sliders or cut fastballs, like Jansen used to throw, and Mariano Rivera threw better than anyone, are great. Downward movement keeps balls on the ground or in the catchers glove. Haven’t seen a screwball since Jim Brewer was the Dodgers closer back in the 70’s. He made batters look silly as they flailed at ankle high pitches that were impossible to hit, and froze at the ones in the zone.
Self correction. Yes Fernando threw a screwball regularly and effectively after learning how to throw it in 1979. Brewer learned it later in his career too when he moved from starter to closer. Both of them weren’t particularly hard throwers and needed something more. They got it. It can be learned and it can revitalize a career.
Then you weren’t paying attention. Fernando threw a great screwball as did Mike Marshall. In fact Marshall threw three different versions of a screwball. They are both post-Brewer but there was nothing like listening to Vin in the late innings…. “Brewer at the belt….the 3-2 pitch… Screwball! Got him Swinging….”
Future Dodgers closer(crossing my fingers).
Welcome to the Dodgers! So happy to read the enthusiasm and to imagine how talented Brusdar may turn out to be. Let’s also hope that Dodgers announcers will do their homework and learn from Day One how to properly pronounce his first and last names. It shouldn’t be hard for the broadcast team to find out. Charlie Steiner’s pronunciations of Spanish names can be downright painful to the ear!
Welcome aboard Brusdar Graterol you are a great addition to the bullpen!
This might be, ‘all she wrote’ for kenley Jansen.
Hey, Jensen had his chances. Angelenos have had enough of his, ‘Tom Niedenfier..100mph beach ball!’ Get that c$@p outta here!
GO DODGERS!