Ogando preview

After a successful series against the Indians, the Yankees will welcome the Texas Rangers to town for a three-game series beginning tonight.  For the second time this year, the pitching matchup will be Alexi Ogando versus CC Sabathia.  Ogando's story has probably been told a lot by now - converted outfielder, debuted in the bullpen last year, moved to the rotation, and has yet to lose a game all year.  He seems like a pretty tough customer.  Some bulletpoints on his stuff and pitching style:

• Ogando is one of the hardest throwers in the game, averaging about 94.4 with his four-seam fastball. This puts him behind Michael Pineda, Justin Verlander, and David Price as the hardest-throwing starter in the game. 
• He's all about that four-seamer, as he'll throw it a little under two-thirds of the time (62% against lefties, 66% against righties).  He'll throw an 80 mph slider as his offspeed pitch (26% LHB, 32% RHB) as well as the occasional changeup or two-seam sinker.
• He'll get swings-and-misses on his fastball about 15% more often than the league average pitcher would.  However, his slider whiff rate of .264 is well below the league average of about 32%. 
• He's below average at getting groundballs with both his fastball (36%) and his slider (32%), so he's prone to the home run ball.
• His control is excellent, as he's maintained a walk rate of 2 per 9 innings by being able to throw strikes consistently with both his fastball (35% balls per pitch) and slider (37%). 

Given his power arm, Ogando might seem like he'd be more of a strikeout pitcher, but he's making the control thing work well for him so far.  His BABIP is .210, so his ERA probably won't stay in the low 2s for long.  Even if you throw in some regression, he still looks like a top-flight starting pitcher.