Quick f/x: Zach Britton

 The rejuvenated (you heard me) Yankees start a quick two game series tonight against the Orioles at Camden, and on the mound for the birds will be rookie Zach Britton.  Britton has impressed so far with five wins and a 2.42 ERA.  I'd expect that to rise to the high 3s based on his peripherals, but that's still pretty good anyway.  Britton's a groundball-pitcher, grounder on 55% of balls in play this year.  He comes at hitters with four different offerings: two-seam fastball, four-seam fastball, changeup, and slider (click links for pitch grips).  He throws his fastballs in the low 90s, his changeup in the mid-high 80s (very little speed difference; tough to split them up from the fastballs sometimes) and his slider, which he reserves for lefties, a bit below that.  Individual pitch metrics for Britton in his young career:

	#	Swing Rate	Whiff Rate	Zone Rate	Ball Rate	Called Rate	GB Rate
Sinker	294	.490	.146	.510	.361	.150	.539
Fastball	259	.347	.111	.413	.429	.224	.389
Changeup	169	.574	.340	.521	.290	.136	.844
Slider	41	.244	.500	.171	.610	.146	.500

The changeup is definitely his best pitch (it's early, but look at that groundball rate!), and he's not afraid to throw it to lefties.  He's got good stuff, but he will give up hits.