RADIO
Ian Anderson 2020 Outlook: Talented Arm May Be Slowed by Pitching Depth
5 years agoIan Anderson likely isn’t far from being ready for Atlanta. With that said, he has some pitching competition around him (prospects Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, Kyle Muller, Patrick Weigel) which could make him more of a 2021 impact arm rather than 2020 but the playoff-hopeful Braves will no doubt go with the pitcher performing the best when the time comes. Anderson has arguably the highest ceiling in the system with three potentially-plus offerings and he struck out 172 batters in just 135.2 innings in 2019 while spending most of the year in Double-A. What he needs to do, though, is to improve his control. His walk rate was more than 11% last year and up from the year before. Fortunately, he has shown the athleticism necessary to turn that around with additional experience. He also does a nice job of inducing ground balls but got away from that a bit in his late-season, five-start cameo in Triple-A (Five homers in 24.2 innings). He’ll need to find a way to get back down in the zone to avoid getting hurt by the long ball going forward. Anderson threw lots of innings last year and has been durable in his career so he should be good for about 170-180 in 2020. He has the potential to develop into a No. 2 starter.
