Brandon White Report

Brandon White was named pitcher of the week June 15-21 in the International League while pitching for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (AAA-MIA). White has a plus size frame that can be compared to Tyler Glasnow, Trevor Megill, and Bialey Ober. The height leads to outlier extension of 7.3 ft allowing his entire arsenal to play up. He then turned in another stellar outing this past week, going 5 innings, 2 hits and 0 earned runs.  

As seen in the graph above, White has heavily relied on his fastball this season with slider and changeup usage being pretty balanced. Going into his last two outings, White had a clear adjustment in mind as he has shifted his usage to less fastballs and sliders and made the changeup a close second pitch usage wise. This change has really improved his results and is unsurprising as his fastball is giving up harder contact than both his secondary offerings. The ability to spin the ball is not a strength for White but he has shown an above average ability to kill spin on his changeup.  

The fastball averaged 96 in this outing and got up to 98. This velocity paired with his extension makes this a tough fastball to catch up to. The shape on its own does is not an above average trait, but the pitch seems to get on hitters quick enough to get a good whiff rate (33%) and miss barrels (0.179 xwOBA). 

With adjusted usage, the main secondary pitch is now the changeup, and it really impressed in this performance. Averaging a 10-12 mph speed difference off the fastball while creating 13 inches of vertical separation is a deadly combination for a changeup. While the pitch wasn’t getting much chase out of the zone, White was able to get plenty of whiff and soft contact in the zone, which is more important if he hopes to be effective at the major league level. Overall, the offering allowed just a .022 xwOBA and saw a 50% whiff rate which are both well above average. 

Lastly, the slider was used primarily to righties and was arguably even more effective than the changeup. Averaging 83 mph and 7 inches of glove side break, White was able to use it as an offering to either put righties away or get back in the count. The spin profile is not great, but the extension seems to help the pitch get some later break despite that. The movement profile this outing seemed inconsistent as the slider would be sweepy at times and later be more of a depthy gyro shape. White struggled to command the slider more than the other pitches, but it was still around the zone enough to be effective. If the shape becomes more consistent, and White can throw it a couple ticks harder, this pitch can become a plus pitch for him. 

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