Cincinnati Reds see a disappointing start for starter Rookie Davis in his first MLB season

The Cincinnati Reds had high hopes for Rookie Davis in his debut MLB season, but it has gotten off to a rough start.

When the Cincinnati Reds brought Rookie Davis over from the New York Yankees in exchange for Aroldis Chapman, he was viewed as a potential front line starter in a steal for the Yankees.  He spent all of the 2016 season in the Reds’ minor league system.  Now he is in the starting rotation for Triple-A Louisville after starting the season with the Reds.

Davis pitched three innings in his first start, allowing four runs.  He also allowed 2 walks, while striking out four.  With five hits Davis came out of the first game with a WHIP of 2.33.

Davis has battled WHIP difficulties his entire professional career.  Most of his issues have come from an inability at times to fool batters.  Unlike most of the Reds’ prospects, Davis has not shown control issues in his young professional career.

Davis’ issues have been related to letting batters square up on the ball too easily  That can be tracked by looking at batting average against.  Davis faced this issue in all of his MLB starts to date.

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In his debut start he allowed a BAA of .357.  It is a small sample, but there were other starts where he has had BAA of .355 and .271.  Anything above about .250 makes it difficult to maintain control of a game as a starter.

Rookie Davis can make the adjustments to have a successful season for the Cincinnati Reds.

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Davis has seen this before.  He knows what he needs to do to be successful.  Twice his BAA was as low as .237 at the end of a game, but as Davis sits in Louisville his current season BAA is .363.

That is where he needs to go now.  He needs to get that BAA down to a controllable number.  The good news is that Davis will get better over time.  Unlike many of his contemporaries, Davis doesn’t rely on strikeouts to control his WHIP.

The other good news is that even when Davis is having issues with his WHIP and BAA, he doesn’t usually allow a ton of home runs.  He has an innate ability to keep the ball in the ballpark at all times.

That made his first start a little disconcerting as he allowed a pair of home runs to the lowly Philadelphia Phillies.

Maybe the best news is that the Reds tried to give Davis the time to make adjustments.  With Robert Stephenson and Bronson Arroyo also having slow starts, the Reds gave Davis a long leash.  Cody Reed seems to be the only competition from spring training that looks like a possibility to step in, as he too is in Louisvile.

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The Reds need to do whatever will get Davis ready for next season.  That means letting him make a few more starts, eventually.  Until then Reed or even Sal Romano, once he gets healthy, can replace Davis in order to save his psyche, if necessary.