Milwaukee Brewers What To Expect: Chase Anderson

Sep 2, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Chase Anderson (57) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 2, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Chase Anderson (57) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Recently the Brewers continued their process of rebuilding the organization sending Jean Segura to the Diamonbacks in a 5 player trade that saw Aaron Hill, Isan Diaz and Chase Anderson to Milwaukee. Hill is going to be the obvious second baseman of the Brewers, and Diaz is an upcoming prospect. But, Chase Anderson may be the best part of this trade.

At 28 years old he has had just 48 major league starts and his changeup is where he shines. Anderson’s has the 11th-highest run value among starting pitchers, and while Anderson hasn’t been a superstar or an Ace, he even declined after coming off the DL (his FIP- went from 111 to 97), but his strikeouts did pickup and his contact rate went down from 85% to 78%.

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The Brewers got Anderson on the cheap and they’ll have him for a while. He has the potential to be another Mike Fiers which would work wonders for the Brewers. Anderson isn’t the type of pitcher that’s talked about in the national circles. He’s no Justin Verlander or Felix Hernandez.

There are even many who aren’t the fan of the changeup (Me I’m one of the oddballs who love it along with a good Knuckler) and coming of Arizona’s spring training last season Anderson had the best ERA. He upped the usage of his sinker from 18% to 27% as well improving his ground ball rate from 40% to 43%. The difference? He added more ticks to his changeup and threw it more.

If you head over to Brooks Baseball, you’ll see he went from throwing the changeup 19.82% to 22.29%. As well groundballs on BIP went up from 36.99 to 43.98%, and the batting average against went down from 0.182 to 0.158.

Chase Anderson is a perfect for the Brewers, he’s old enough to provide veteran experience to younger plays and he is going to be in the rotation for years to come. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the years to come he becomes a fan favorite pitcher.