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When healthy, there have been few more effective left-handed pitchers over the past few years than Johan Santana and Erik Bedard. Unfortunately, due to injuries, we haven’t seen much of those two in quite a while. Bedard only pitched 129.1 innings last season while missing the entire 2010 season and Santana missed all of last year after getting hurt near the end of his 2010 campaign.

Both pitchers are back this season and both are scheduled to be their team’s ace on the year. Santana kicked off his season with a start against the Braves while Bedard faced off against the Phillies. One game doesn’t make a season but based on what we saw yesterday there’s reason to believe we could see two pretty effective pitchers this season.

Johan Santana vs Atlanta Braves

Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	87.69	89.7	4.70	9.34	52	35 / 67.31%	7 / 13.46%	-1.5208	0.429
CH (Changeup)	77.46	81	6.73	8.14	14	9 / 64.29%	4 / 28.57%	-0.2864	0.486
SL (Slider)	80.54	82.4	-0.58	2.64	16	6 / 37.50%	2 / 12.50%	-0.5232	0.468
FT (TwoSeam Fastball)	88.40	88.5	8.72	8.23	2	0 / 0.00%	0 / 0.00%	0.0495	0.425

Santana was taken out after throwing 84 pitches, so he only completed five innings of work, robbing him of a decision, but his five innings were very effective. Santana only allowed two hits while striking out five against a pretty good Braves team. The most encouraging sign was how well he threw his change-up, producing nine strikes on 14 pitches while getting a great break on the ball. Santana’s change-up has always been one of the best in baseball but it was great to see it’s break remain largely the same post-surgery.

Erik Bedard vs Philadelphia Phillies

Pitch Type	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg H-Break	Avg V-Break	Count	Strikes / %	Swinging Strikes / %	Linear Weights	Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball)	87.89	89.8	4.61	8.61	8	5 / 62.50%	2 / 25.00%	0.2953	0.426
CH (Changeup)	75.44	83.2	6.39	3.97	16	10 / 62.50%	2 / 12.50%	-0.5390	0.494
CU (Curveball)	73.80	75.3	-6.05	-7.94	23	18 / 78.26%	1 / 4.35%	-1.8206	0.512
FT (TwoSeam Fastball)	88.13	91.3	9.96	6.48	34	25 / 73.53%	2 / 5.88%	-0.6424	0.425

Bedard pitched deeper into his ballgame than Santana did, making better use of his pitches and performing just as well. Had it not been for an even more impressive performance from Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay, Bedard may very well have walked out of PNC Park with an opening day win. Bedard has never produced the kind of swinging strike numbers that Santana has over the course of his career so it’s not all that surprising to see Bedard get just seven swinging strikes on 81 pitches. The interesting thing with Bedard was his dramatic increase in usage of his two-seam fastball. According to FanGraph’s PitchF/X data, Bedard had never thrown the two-seem fastball until last season. After testing it out it seems like Bedard will go to the two-seamer more often this season (he threw 34 two-seamers compared to just eight four-seam fastballs yesterday).

These two guys may never be Cy Young candidates again – Bedard was only really in contention for one year – but I think there’s a good chance that these two can bounce back from their constant DL stints and deliver their first full seasons in a good while. And as long as Santana and Bedard are on the hill, you can expect good results.

The Cut-Off Man Chris Berry Interactive Chris Berry Interactive