This Changes EVERYTHING... Tanner Houck Updates!

This changes everything for the Boston Red Sox as Tanner Hauk down in AAA seems to be finding his footing leaving all of Red Sox nation extremely optimistic for the weeks coming. I'm here to break down his most recent appearance and how soon we could actually see Tanner Hauk back on the MLB stage. We'll break down all of that on this episode of Red Sox Digest, but first please do remember if you're a part of the near 90% currently watching this video, not currently subscribed, to scroll down and smash that subscribe button. We do appreciate all the love and support, so thank you guys for everything. But now let's get to it and break down a revamped Tanner Hauk. And this is exactly what Red Sox nation and the Red Sox organization as a whole wanted to see with Tanner Hauk being moved down to AAA. If you don't remember how this season initially started for Tanner Hauk, it was abysmal. There's no way to get around it. There's no way to be blunt and sugarcoat it and be optimistic about it. Tanner Hauk on the MLB stage to start this MLB season before being sent down to the minor leagues on IL was not good. It's hard to say because I was very optimistic as well as a lot of Red Sox nation after what we had witnessed last year from Tanner Hauk being one of the main guys coming out of the starting rotation for this Red Sox team. But something happened. Mechanically, mentally, emotionally, physically, something happened with Tanner Hauk coming into this MLB season and nothing carried over. He has been getting smashed. The average exit velocity is way up. The whiff rate is way down. The k-percentage is way down. Tanner Hauk did not have the swing and miss stuff that everyone was really hoping to see from this young man, especially after what we had witnessed just a year prior. Now he got some extra help in Walker Buehler and Garrett Crochet. Bayo has returned. There was a good amount of complimentary arms surrounding Hauk where he wouldn't have to be the 1A guy in Boston. And despite that and the pressure coming off of his shoulders, at least to some degree, it did not translate. And this is the overall baseball savant page that we saw from Hauk as well as the overall just production that we saw game in and game out. It just did not, nothing looked good from Tanner Hauk regardless of the matchup, regardless of the team he was facing, whether you're seeing a bunch of righties or a mix of righties and lefties, everyone was hitting the baseball extremely hard against him. And it didn't make a lot of sense because if you watch Tanner Hauk throw the baseball, he has a mid to high 70s, excuse me, mid to high 90s fastball sitting anywhere between that mid the mid 95s to just under 98 miles per hour on both the four-seam fastball and the sinker, which is going to play as long as it's not flat. But it seemed like Hauk's was extremely flat and he couldn't pair it with the breaking stuff that he has, that Frisbee sweeper slash slider, however you'd like to address it, that he does throw, which is legitimately a Frisbee. And when Hauk has his stuff, when it comes to the breaking stuff, he is just a airbender of a pitcher. It just was not working and teams were able to jump all over him early and often from the start of the year up until he was dropped down to AAA on IL. Now in IL, how is Tanner Hauk really been? If you look at his prospects, Savant, it's not good. And there's a few other things we're going to mention like the advanced stats that we're going to highlight in just a second, but we're going to start with this. This tweet, if you look at the bottom, we're not going to look at the subtweet yet, the one at the bottom where GG on Twitter went on and posted that allegedly Tanner Hauk topped out at over a hundred miles per hour on a four-seam fastball today in his appearance for the Wusocs. Come to find out, allegedly, it doesn't seem like he hit a hundred. Now, I will tag this five-second clip down in the description if you'd like to watch it yourself. I don't have it to play for you guys right now, but again, tag down in the description if you'd like to actually watch it. The pitch, first of all, does not look like he hit a hundred. Average velocity would probably be around 95-96 miles per hour. Location was very good, inner half of the plate to a right-handed batter, really painting the inside line. But again, the overall velocity that claims to have been there, it seems to be a misread and not accurate. Overall though, Hauk's stuff does look like it's on above that 95 miles per hour range, which is good. It's not going to be sitting as flat, and he'll be able to pair it with that breaking stuff that we know is so lethal for him. Now, outside of that, his total line, four-and-a-thirds innings, three hits, no earned runs, he struck out six and walked two. On 76 pitches thrown, he threw 46 strikes, 13 of them being swinging and misses. Overall, the whiff rate is not entirely there, what we are hoping to see from someone in Tanner Hauk who has such lethal breaking stuff. But overall, this is good progression, and we could see him as a middle reliever for this Red Sox team in the coming weeks. Based off of this report from Tommy Castle on Twitter, who does cover the Wu Sox, he went on to say this on Twitter. Just spoke with Tanner Hauk following his latest rehab stint in AAA, saying the Red Sox pitcher said he plans to travel back to Boston tomorrow and is, quote, excited for my return back to the big leagues here soon. End of quote from Tanner Hauk. His 30-day rehab window expires next week. So when could we see Tanner Hauk returning to this team? I would expect 10 to 14 days is when we'll start to get hints at Tanner Hauk being returned to the major league level. In doing so, I will say I expect him to be a middle inning reliever for this Red Sox team before being thrown back into the starting lineup, in the sense of a starting rotational guy. Now, Tanner Hauk, if he goes out there and it simply does not work, I do not expect the fuse to be very long in the Red Sox organization. Expect him to be bounced right back to AAA if things don't work. But based off these most recent outings from Tanner Hauk, including the one today, I expect him to be back in the big leagues very, very soon. Now for the arsenal breakdown down in the minor leagues, this is the second thing I felt like a necessity to break down. It's the overall usage as well as the spin rates and all the nerdy details when it comes to each pitch in Tanner Hauk's arsenal. Obviously, sweeper, sinker, splitter, foreseam, cutter, and the sweepers being thrown 35% of the time just in front of the sinker, which is being thrown just under 31% of the time. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is because the two-pitch mix is still there and it's being utilized. It's just not fully at the maximum level in which we are hoping for. But again, there's still room for progression. The last thing or the real thing I wanted to mention is the expected slugging on each pitch. Now, we don't have it on baseball savant. Again, this is off of prospect savant because Hauk is working down in the minors. So since he is pitched and all of his appearances down in the minors, this is where those stats come from. And on the far right-hand side, you see the expected slugging percentage. If you look at the fourth row as well as the second row, that again, is the sinker as well as the fourseam fastball. Okay. He's getting rocked in AAA. 800 slugging, expected slugging on the fastball and on the sinker, 819. If you look at the other two or three pitches, the splitter as well as the sweeper, sub 300 slugging. That is phenomenal. A ground ball pitch, something you're hoping to get batters to roll over on and get soft contact and easy outs. That seems to be working. But the fastball and the sinker once again remain flat. It looks like he's getting crushed down in the minor leagues on those two pitches as well as even the cutter that you see at the bottom of your screen, that last pitch that we're referencing, that is thrown just under 10% of the time at a 742 expected slugging. Overall, not the greatest stuff from Tanner Hauk, but there is a lot of progression there that we could see translate to the MLB level, specifically on the breaking pitches. When you put him in a position where he has to throw the fastball or a sinker or even a cutter, it seems like Tanner Hauk is being, they're just sitting on it, and they know what's coming, and they know they can do damage on it. If he can just some way, somehow, figure out how to make this, just be able to tunnel or pair it well with this breaking stuff and have it not run so flat, we could really see Tanner Hauk return to form for this Red Sox team. Let me know down below your overall thoughts and opinions on this update from Tanner Hauk and really what you expect to see from him in the coming weeks and whether or not he will be back a part of this Red Sox organization in doing so. Thank you guys for watching, and I'll see you guys on the next episode of Red Sox Digest.