Cubs' Latest Bullpen Reinforcement: Gavin Hollowell, but With New, Crazy Angles

At the tail end of last season, the Cubs claimed Gavin Hollowell on waivers and got him onto the big-league mound for a game. They liked some of what they saw from Hollowell, a 6-foot-7 righthander with an utterly vexing arm angle, if you're an opposing righty. His deception seemed to be ahead of both his command and his raw stuff, and the smart money said Hollowell would end up being peeled off the 40-man roster at some point during the winter.

Improbably, though, he survived the team's considerable winter roster turnover, and once he got as far as spring training, it was relatively easy for the team to keep him. He can be optioned to the minor leagues, which is a qualification for a depth arm almost as valuable as any given pitch or characteristic, in the modern game. Tuesday, the team recalled Hollowell to the parent club.

The lanky hurler did himself some favors by adding about a tick to his fastball, the four-seam flavor of which now sits at 94 miles per hour and touched 96 in his most recent outing, April 17 against the St. Paul Saints. The Cubs also had an idea, though, and the big hurler has embraced it: he's slid over to the third-base side of the rubber.

From his upright sidearm slot, and with all that height, Hollowell gives opposing hitters a profoundly uncomfortable angle with which to work when he comes from that side of the rubber. He's releasing the ball about four feet wide of the center of the rubber. When hitters talk about some big, side-slinging pitchers appearing to throw the ball from somewhere behind them, Hollowell's new combination of setup and delivery is what they mean.

Because of the extremity of these angles and the disparity in movement between his four-seamer, his sinker, and his sweeper, all three of those pitches fare better this spring in stuff models. The challenge is throwing strikes from such a bizarre angle; the strike zone gets smaller, because you're going at it sideways. 

Hollowell won't step into a high-leverage role for the team. He's more likely to be used as a bridge when a Cubs starter has a short outing, or as a sharp zig against the zag of (for instance) the high-slot, left-handed delivery of Shota Imanaga or the equally wide-sweeping but lefty look of Matthew Boyd. He's a temporary solution, at least for now, to the team's need for depth and fresh arms in the pen. That said, he's genuinely improved this season, and the new placement on the rubber gives him a new way to pose hitters difficult questions. As spare arms slotting into the underbelly of the bullpen go, Hollowell is a fairly interesting one.