Who Are Ya: A.J. Griffin

A.J. Griffin takes on R.A. Dickey today in a battle of initial first names. Griffin has a 3.91 ERA and a 4.61 FIP in 23 starts this year, his first full season in the major leagues. Griffin has a fantastic BB/9 of 1.95 although he has a 1.71 HR/9, which accounts for his slightly higher FIP, not to mention a BABIP of .241 bringing his ERA down.

Griffin throws a fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup with his hard stuff hanging in the high 80's and his slow loopy curveball averaging in the high 60's. None of Griffin's off-speed pitches are very dominant, but his curveball is certainly GIF-able:

via www.fangraphs.com

The movement on his curveball dwarfs the movement on his slider/cutter as you can see:

Griffin isn't very exciting to read about, but he has great command and is fairly consistent. He's in his first year of full service time, meaning he is another of the many Oakland starters who will be with the team for multiple years to come. Griffin is slightly better against left handed hitters so the lineup I'd like to see would be:

1. Reyes SS
2. Bautista RF
3. Lind 1B
4. Encarnacion DH
5. Rasmus CF
6. Izturis 2B
7. Lawrie 3B
8. Davis RF
9. Thole C