Rex Brothers Player Preview: the good, the bad, and the unknown

The Good #1: his slider against left-handed hitters

If the Rockies relegated Brothers to a role as a LOOGY, he would be the best LOOGY in the land. His two pitch mix is a fastball he can run up there in the mid 90’s and an absolutely wicked slider.

Exhibit A – strike three on Robinson Cano

Exhibit B – strike three on Matt Adams

In a word, these quality left-handed hitters are helpless. His slider is so tough on lefties that he can also catch them cheating, running his fastball on their hands before they can react.

Exhibit C – Brett Gardner pop-out

Note that, even though Brothers can throw it 95 MPH, all it takes is a 90 MPH pitch to record the out.

The Good #2 – his slider against right-handed hitters

As we know by now, Brothers is no LOOGY, as his out pitch is just as tough on right-handed pitchers. As such, he will be a rare left-handed closer if ever he is finally handed that job.

In that same game that he K’ed Adams in the previous slide to end the game, he struck out two fantastic right-handed hitters using that same slider.

Exhibit D – strike three on Matt Holliday

Brothers had Holliday lunging in the fashion reserved for a guy who starts swinging and then realizes: “Oh crap, I’m going to miss this by a lot…”

Exhibit E – strike three on Carlos Beltran

Granted, batting right against left-handed pitchers is Beltran’s weaker side, but the example is still noteworthy.

Brothers misses bats and strikes out a lot of hitters. His plus fastball is part of that success, but his slider is truly the wipe-out pitch against hitters from both sides of the plate.

The Bad #1 – fastball command

The effectiveness of his slider, a pitch rarely thrown in the strike zone but swung at and missed nevertheless, is predicated on Brothers’ ability to throw his fastball for a strike. Unfortunately for him and for Rockies fans, the growing pains he still experiences from time to time come from a lack of such command. Take these two examples from a blown save against the San Diego Padres.

Exhibit F – misses way outside to right-handed hitter

Exhibit G – makes left-handed bunt-attemptor jump

The Bad #2 – the results of bad fastball command

This lack of command can, on occasion, make Brothers more hittable. That starts with occasions where he gets too much of the plate with a fastball, as is the case on this game-tying home run from Chase Headley.

Exhibit H – Headley home run

And if the hitter doesn’t need to fret about Brothers’ fastball because he is spraying it around, his slider becomes at least a little more hittable. In those rare instances there is even a chance for the opposing team to enjoy the boundless joy of the walk-off victory at Rex’s expense.

Exhibit I – Padres walk-off win whatever

The Unknown – his role Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Like many Rockies fans (I think), I was irked when the team signed Hawkins. I had longed for the days that Brothers would finally be the closer because there just have not been many Rockies’ relievers with his kind of plus-plus stuff over the years.

But with some time to consider it and to hear manager Walt Weiss talk about it, I am starting to think the team might dispatch Brothers in a manner to maximize his contributions to the team’s success. Weiss says the team will look at match-ups starting in about the 7th inning and decide who will be used when. If nothing else, it sounds like bullpen roles will not be set in stone, and that is a good thing.

People tend to balk at the words “closer by committee,” but that is the wrong way to look at this. Brothers is the best option the Rockies have to get out the other team’s best hitters, left-handed or right-handed. If that happens in the 7th inning, then that’s when the team should use Brothers. If that happens in the 9th inning and comes with a save opportunity, then that is where the team should use Brothers.

What I fear, and what I don’t know, is if the team will stick to this flexible plan or if they will fall back into old habits once competitive baseball is happening. If they do, Brothers would pair with a right-handed reliever (Matt Belisle or Adam Ottavino or Wilton Lopez) as the set-up men for Hawkins the closer.

In that scenario Brothers will be one of the best left-handed set-up guys in the game, but it will be a tremendous waste.