San Francisco Giants: Tyler Beede continues to mature as a pitcher
By Justin Fried
San Francisco Giants pitcher Tyler Beede has continued to show improvement and maturity even after his most recent poor outing against the Chicago Cubs.
The San Francisco Giants fully expected the 2019 season to be pretty much a wash. With the team likely to fall well below .500, the expectation was that the Giants would be able to get an extended look at some of their young prospects.
However, their 16-4 record in July has revitalized the team’s season and they now sit just three games out of the second wild-card spot. But that doesn’t mean that they still haven’t been able to analyze some of their younger players.
One of those players has been starting pitcher Tyler Beede who has been given an opportunity to earn a full-time job in the starting rotation this season. There have been plenty of ups and downs, but it looks like Beede is finally beginning to put everything together.
Beede was originally recalled in April of last season and he debuted to much fanfare having been a first-round pick of the Giants back in 2014. However, his first two starts did not go as planned as Beede allowed seven runs in 7.2 innings and looked ultimately very shaky.
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The promise was there — as evidenced by his nine strikeouts over those 7.2 innings — but so was the inconsistency — as evidenced by his eight walks over that same time.
But Beede would get another chance to make a first impression when he was recalled to the Giants in May of this season. While he initially got off to a pretty rough start, Beede has been able to turn his season around with some development.
Prior to Wednesday’s start, Beede had allowed just six runs in his last four starts (32 innings) lowering his ERA from a disastrous 6.96 to a much more reasonable 4.70. Over those starts, Beede showed better command of his pitches and increased confidence on the mound.
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His best outing came on July 19th when he out-dueled last year’s Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom throwing eight scoreless innings and allowing just three hits and one walk. It was an encouraging outing — one that led to an eventual 1-0 Giants victory in 10 innings.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Beede’s game over these last few starts has been his control and ability to limit walks. The 26-year-old struggled mightily with walks early in the season averaging over three per start over his first nine outings.
But since July started, Beede has allowed just two total over his last four starts. And it’s been no coincidence that we’ve seen the best of Beede during this timeframe.
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Even in Beede’s last outing where he clearly didn’t have his best stuff, the Vanderbilt product still surrendered just one walk — evidence of his continued growth and confidence on the mound.
And in that same game, Beede’s secondary stuff was cooking as he recorded 20 swinging strikes, the most by a Giants pitcher since Johnny Cueto in 2017. But it wasn’t his mid-90’s fastball that his opponents were swinging through. Rather it was his newly-developed slider.
We’ve always known that Beede has had the stuff to compete at a high level. And now with his breaking pitches really starting to develop, the sky’s the limit if he could get his control — well — under control.
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The remainder of the season should be a true test for Beede as he looks to make his case to remain a part of the rotation in the near and distant future. But if his recent outings are anything to go off of, the future undoubtedly looks bright.