Brotherly love through analytics

This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CLEVELAND -- Rockies right-hander Ryan Feltner had about 20 guests, including his parents, Laura and Derek, on Tuesday night for the continuation of his coming out party.

On the heels of six scoreless innings in a win at Philadelphia last Thursday, he held the Guardians to one unearned run in 5 2/3 innings in his first game at Progressive Field -- where he attended games from age 12 through high school at Walsh Jesuit in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and college at Ohio State.

One important person was heard not only above the rest of the folks on his pass list, but pierced any din created by the sparse crowd on the cold evening.

“I heard my mom,” Feltner said.

But a person who not only supports Feltner but helps him analytically and technically managed to stay out of earshot and eyesight.

Feltner’s younger brother, Riley Feltner, a former pitcher at Kent State, is his confidant and co-researcher. They have gone from trading pitching ideas to digging through advanced tools for an edge. But by no means is Riley a svengali tugging marionette strings. The numbers-crunching and pattern-watching supplement the information and coaching Ryan receives from the Rockies.

Ryan knows his brother is living every pitch with him, but from afar.

“He's super good with letting game day be game day,” Ryan said. “No mechanical thoughts or technical stuff going on that day -- just go compete. He's also good about staying out of my sight when I pitch, too. Probably hiding somewhere I can never find. That's great.”

Actually, because of his seat location Tuesday night, Riley had to hide in plain sight.

“I unfortunately was right behind the dugout during the game but I don’t think he saw me,” Riley said.

The season started rough, with an 8.78 ERA through his first three starts. But if the last two outings are an indication, Ryan Feltner, 26, is ready to turn the lessons he’s receiving at home and at work into production.

In the Rockies’ laugh-again, cry-again process of developing starting pitchers, Feltner and Austin Gomber have taken steps forward, and Noah Davis has shown well in his first two Major League starts since being called up from Triple-A Albuquerque and, this week. On the other side, the Rockies tried developing José Ureña’s secondary pitches before releasing him this week, and went into Friday hoping the triceps injury Germán Márquez sustained Wednesday was not extensive.

Feltner’s 2023 beginning was vexing. The sinker he developed last year plus his curve and slider are all average to above on a Major League scale.

According to Statcast, Feltner’s changeup has a 41% whiff rate …

… and his four-seam fastball shows a respectable 20 percent whiff rate.

None of that jibed with his high early ERA.

Feltner lasted just 3 2/3 innings because he couldn’t retire the bottom of Seattle’s lineup on April 15. Afterward, he met with manager Bud Black, pitching coach Darryl Scott and Rockies pitching analyst Chris Bonk, a former Hofstra University pitcher who worked in the Minors and was promoted to the Major League research and development staff this year.

Everyone echoed the message Black gave the media after the Seattle game-- it will happen for Feltner. He just had to not become predictable.

“It was the mix of all of them,” Black said in Cleveland. “The fastball was solid, good slider, couple curveballs, changeup -- he really pitched.”

Riley, 22, who is still working through classes at Kent State and serving as pitching coach at Walsh Jesuit, provides whatever supplemental info his brother needs. For more information on what Riley does, he offered an example through his breakdown of the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (he didn’t want to inadvertently give opponents info on his brother) on his blog on Medium.

He offered Ryan reassurance during the struggles.

“He was missing a lot of bats and getting a ton of weak contact. The expected stats, pitch shapes, execution, and velocity all looked good on all of his pitches,” Riley said. “It certainly is not an ideal way to start a year— to feel like the results should be there and they aren’t.

“But, in my reports, I just kept reiterating to execute one pitch at a time, one inning at a time and things will even out soon. I think the Rockies were relaying a very similar message to him as well.”

The message has landed.

“Now that I have the game plan, it's just about executing it,” Ryan said. “Things feel very simple to me right now, and to have the support of the team behind me and the coaches has been super-helpful.”