2021 report card: Sam Coonrod

Having fallen out of favor in San Francisco, the Phillies traded for reliever Sam Coonrod in January 2021. The team had a dearth of hard throwers in 2020, and acquiring Coonrod, whose fastball sometime exceeded 100 miles per hour, was part of an attempt to rectify that.

The stats

42 games, 42.1 innings pitches, 2-2 W-L, 4.04 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 3.2 BB/9

The good

Coonrod’s velocity came as advertised. His fastball averaged 98.8 MPH, and it regularly topped 100. That allowed him to rack up a lot of strikeouts, while also decreasing his walks from the year before. A pitcher who strikes out a lot of batters and limits walks sounds like he’d be good. And for the most part, he was an adequate option in…