Jharel Cotton’s is struggling with control and command

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY SportsJharel Cotton has been bad. Part of his poor season is undoubtedly on the defense, and on a better team, his ERA might be palatable. His stuff still looks pretty solid at times but he’s just not quite right.

The good news: Cotton’s velocity is roughly the same as it was last year (keep in mind MLB’s change in tracking causes its readings to be a bit different) so he appears to be healthy. So what has gone wrong?

An overall lack of control and command

In his career, Cotton has always lived in the zone. His career walk rate is just 8.4% and has trended down in recent seasons. This year? It’s at a career high 10.5% which works out to 4.18 walks per nine innings.…