One of the quietest surprises of Oakland's 2012, AJ Griffin burst onto the scene for the Athletics in Mid-June and made his first of 15 starts against San Francisco at the Coliseum. Griffin, a San Diego native and 13th round selection in 2010, began his 2011 in Burlington, Iowa and wound up guiding Stockton to a northern divisional title by the season's end. He began the 2012 campaign slotted in Midland and ascended to Sacramento after a mere seven appearances. After a brief eight in California's capital, the righty found himself suiting up in a major league baseball uniform for the Athletics. It was just a few years ago that scouts doubted his projectability and cited his senior status after throwing his name into the draft pool following his campaign as a torero coming to a close.
Griffin displayed his absurd curveball movement early in his budding major league career:
http://www.fangraphs.com/not/index.php/request-a-gif-a-j-griffins-curvepiece
This offering housed in his repertoire carried him as a staple through his 2012 along with an effective changeup and slider. But, his curve proved to be most effective in his initial few outings. Against SF and Texas (Shown in the link), Griffin had stretches in each game with retiring 13 consecutive batters and provided momentum heading into a July where he took to hill five times, going six or more innings in each appearance. He posted a 84.5% LOB% the month and benefitted from a favorable .267 BABIP against Boston, Minnesota, New York, Tampa Bay and Toronto as he steered Oakland towards their greatest single month in franchise history.
Griffin's first August start wound up derailing his month though as he exited against Toronto while pitching in the Coliseum. His velocity on his FB alarmingly decreased to 83 MPH and prompted the training staff to visit him and escort the 230 pounder to the clubhouse. Shoulder inflammation placed the righty on the disabled list until September 1st where he would re-emerge against a Boston club now in shambles to commence his September/October of extremes.
Griffin took aim at Boston, Seattle, and Anaheim where he went 20 1/3 IP, walked a lone batter, surrenered zero HRs, and had a .263 BABIP, 15.05 pitches per inning and a mere 5.31 balls thrown per inning. He culminated his dominant stretch in an eight frame scoreless performance versus Anaheim to claim Oakland's 12th consecutive road victory (Which tied an OAK record). See Link:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/a-j-griffins-lofty-season-continues
Afterwards, the Griffindor began to regress from his unsustainable BABIP and LOB% numbers with some shakey performances to close out his 2012 and left the 5th starter post in 2013 up for grabs.
To begin the Athletics 10 game roadtrip Griffin took the mound against Detroit and easily had his worst contest of his career. He would surrender three homers and couldn't receive any offensive support despite having Scherzer leave the ballgame after two innings en route to the worst loss of the season by a 12-2 final. Griffin would close out the season in his last four starts by going 17 1/3 IP while permitting 8 walks (After 11 in his first 11 outings or 65 IP). He also allowed 5 HRs and saw his pitches increase to 21.29 per inning and 7.55 balls per frame. And, predictibly enough, AJ's BABIP swelled to .375 in his final four appearances. Overall, Griffin still made a solid postseason stint in Oakland's 4th game against Detroit and tamed his demons against the kitties (Welp, not Prince Fielder. But still...). In 82 1/3 IP, Griffindor finished with a 3.85 FIP, a .264 BABIP, 81.3% LOB%, a 10.2% HR/FB ratio, and a 1.3 fWAR. One characteristic that remained steadfast for Griffin was his efficiency and pitch precision, which had carried and allowed him to be buddies with the luck dragons. Once his control began to lose its luster towards the end of the season so did his luck.
Griffin still assisted Oakland to their astonishing finish and features a devastating arsenal which could fend off statistical regression. Unless he gets dealt for a catching upgrade this offseason, he should defeat Straily and Blackley for the final rotation position entering 2013 (A solid spring pending). Start preparing the "Griffindor" banner, Right field.
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