San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Chafin limits overthinking
ARLINGTON, Texas — Andrew Chafin entered Tuesday’s game in Cleveland as the sixth A’s relief pitcher of the night. He inherited a one-run lead in the 10th and a runner on second to start the extra inning. The runner did not move. Chafin used seven pitches to notch three outs and his first save of the season.
It continued a theme this season for the left-hander acquired by Oakland from the Cubs before the July 30 trade deadline. Chafin, 31, has employed efficiency in posting some of the best numbers of his career, which included a 1.76 ERA and 0.78 WHIP — thirdlowest among all pitchers with 40-plus innings — through Friday.
Chafin was averaging 13.87 pitches per inning through Friday. That was fourth-lowest among pitchers who had faced at least 100 hitters, with only Miami’s Richard Bleier and All-Star selections Jacob deGrom and Andrew Kittredge averaging fewer. In his first seven outings with the A’s, Chafin completed a scoreless inning on 14 or fewer pitches six times.
“As of late I try to tell everybody I’m going out for a threepitch inning — I want three
quick groundball outs and be done with it,” Chafin said before Saturday’s game in Texas. “Work as quick and efficient as possible. Here’s my sinker, roll it over, get out and let’s move on to the next guy is kind of my thought process.”
It reflects what Chafin termed his “biggest change with my approach” this season — throwing strikes early and often.
“I ain’t trying to throw no balls,” Chafin said. “Here it is — good luck. If you beat me, you beat me, but I’m going right at you.”
Numbers bear this out. Chafin is throwing first-pitch strikes a career-high 64.5% of the time. He has a career-low walk rate. His strikeout rate is also at its lowest since 2015, but more contact hasn’t hurt him. Chafin sits in the top 10% in lowest opponents’ average exit velocity, per Statcast, and his chase rate on pitches outside the zone is a career-best 32.9%.
Not that Chafin is studying those numbers.
“In previous years I feel like I got a little more nitpicky, I tried to pitch instead of just letting it eat,” Chafin said. “If I (say), ‘I’ve got to throw a sinker, I’ve got to put it here or they’re going to hit it because that’s what all the paper B.S. says’ — it’s like, no, here it is, good luck. Just trust my own stuff and I feel like I’ve gotten much better at trusting my pitches out there.”
Chafin’s main pitch is the sinker he uses about half the time, contributing to a 50.4% groundball rate this year. His slider has also been a wipeout weapon; opponents were hitting .039 against it entering Saturday and Chafin had finished 32 of 45 strikeouts with the pitch. He began Saturday having allowed one home run in 46 innings and had been effective against right-handed hitters (.456 OPS) and lefties (.409).
“There’s certain guys that go in looking to miss bats and I think you’re seeing that a lot around the league nowadays,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “But I think he’s not looking to strike anybody out until he gets to two strikes. … And that makes him so efficient because that first pitch in his mind is, all right, let’s put it in a good spot and keep it on the ground.”
Chafin was acquired on July 26 for minor-leaguers Greg Deichmann and Daniel Palencia, and said the transition has been “smooth.” He now wears a green version of the “Failed Starter” T-shirt he sported with the Cubs. (Shirts for other A’s relievers are “still on order,” Chafin said.) He is playing more hacky sack — a pregame ritual for A’s pitchers — than he has since grade school.
Last month, Chafin tweeted A’s fans with “a challenge for y’all. I’m trying to find a boat to live on while I’m in Oakland.” Chafin, who lives in Ohio and owns a 200-acre farm where he raises cattle, among other projects, said “harbor rules” have complicated the search effort.
“If I can find a boat it’d be sweet, but I kind of gave up looking at this point,” Chafin said. “I feel like the next two months we spend most of the time on the road anyway.”
Said Melvin: “He’s not the most vocal guy in the world, at least not around me, but he’s a fun-loving guy, never looks like anything’s bothering him too much. I think he enjoys playing baseball, enjoys life in general. And that’s the part that shows up for me.”