The New York Yankees’ season is off to a great start, and rising star pitcher Cam Schlittler deserves a lot of the credit.
For the second-straight outing to begin the year, Schlittler completely shut down an opposing offense. After blanking the San Francisco Giants last Friday in his season debut, the 25-year-old twirled 6 1/3 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts against the Seattle Mariners, allowing only two hits.
Schlittler announced himself to the baseball world with a dominant start in last year’s Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, but it seems as though these types of starts are now becoming the standard. The righty’s manager confirmed that notion on Wednesday night.
Aaron Boone’s reflection on Schlittler’s start carried a fairly simple message. The Yankees aren’t surprised by how good Schlittler has been, but they continue to be ecstatic about his potential to keep growing into more of an ace.
“It’s exciting to see how dominant his stuff is, just filling up the strike zone,” Boone said, via MLB.com video. “He got some early outs and that allowed him to get pretty deep into the game with a pitch count.”
For a guy who regularly touches 100 mph, Schlittler has remarkable command of multiple pitch types and locations. Boone made a point of hearkening back to the righty’s early prospect days, when he was a seventh-round pick with a low-90s fastball, to illustrate why his developmental path led to this much success.
“He’s throwing the ball incredibly well, obviously,” Boone said, per MLB.com. “It’s a great fastball, and a couple different versions of that fastball — the sinker, the four-seam, and the cutter. … His calling card, since he got in the organization, was his ability to throw strikes, with his fastball especially. As he’s gone to another level from a stuff standpoint, that’s really served him well.”
Will Schlittler end the season with a 0.00 ERA? No, but for a guy who still has just under 100 innings pitched against major league competition, including his two playoff starts, it’s hard to fathom how high the ceiling could be if he keeps leveling up every start.
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