Guardians Might Have a New Ace in the Making?

Photo Credit: (Tim Phillis - For The News-Herald)

Player A Stats:

MLB: 57-27 / 3.14 ERA / 119 GS / 754.2 IP / 870 K / 1.097 WHIP / 10.4 SO9 / 5.24 SO/W

Minors: 16-6 / 2.32 ERA / 51 GS / 283 IP / 267 K / 0.98 WHIP / 8.5 SO9 / 12.71 SO/W 

Player B Stats:

MLB: 1-1 / 4.30 ERA / 3 GS / 14.2 IP / 15 K / 1.43 WHIP / 9.2 SO9 / 3.75 SO/W

Minors: 10-2 / 2.13 ERA / 28 GS / 148 IP / 186 K / 0.97 WHIP / 11.3 SO9 / 5.31 SO/W

Side by side these stats can tell a million different stories. The story that I am seeing unfold is the fact that the Guardians may have found their new ace in the hole. 

Player A stats above belong to Shane Bieber who is a Cy Young Award Winner & 2x All Star while the player B stats belong to 24-year old Tanner Bibee (#56 Prospect on MLB Pipeline Top 100) who was recently called up by Cleveland. While I'm not looking to compare these two directly, I’d like to highlight what the numbers could indicate for the Guardians. Understanding that it is very early in Bibee’s career, I am simply looking at K-BB ratios and demonstrating that he can be something special between his talent, organizational development and pitch mix.

Bibee is one of the few recent pitching prospects to get called up and actually deliver quality results on arrival. With a multi-pitch mix consisting of a 60-grade Fastball, 50-grade Curveball, 60-grade Slider and 55-grade Changeup, Bibee has four ways to attack hitters in opposing lineups. Since joining the Guardians rotation Bibee has shown excellent stuff including a 23.8% K-rate and a 6.3% walk-rate. 

Given that Bibee has a far greater K% of 23.8% to Bieber’s 18.8%  and owns the same exact walk rate as Bieber (6.3%) this season it is clear to me that Bibee can excel in this league and needs to give up less contact (1.43 WHIP). Once the 24 year old figures out his pitch mix and starts to locate his spots more consistently I’d expect that WHIP to drop and with that the ERA should also come down. With gradual progression and the already proven results it is no secret that Guardians fans should be excited for Bibee as he looks like he can develop into an Ace for Cleveland. It is probably too late as the secret is out but go and grab Bibee in fantasy leagues if he is available as he is a must add!

Looking forward to watching him in his next scheduled start on May 14th against southpaw Patrick Sandoval and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Good luck Mr. Bibee, I look forward to watching you hose down batters this season and for some time to come.