Mario Eduardo Lemus Hollands (born August 26, 1988) is an American former professional baseball left-handed relief pitcher.
Hollands played college baseball for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, where he earned a degree in sociology.
After performing well in those exhibition games, he made the Phillies' 2014 Opening Day roster, and although he walked too many hitters, showed some potential to emerge as a decent relief pitcher.
[10] Late in the season in Lehigh Valley, he compiled a 9.24 earned run average (ERA) in three starts and possessed a fastball that reached only 86 miles per hour (138 km/h), prompting Rod Nichols, then Lehigh Valley's pitching coach, and subsequently the Phillies' bullpen coach, to praise Hollands' work ethic, but opine that his pitching repertoire was insufficiently effective.
[16] As the season progressed, Hollands was rather streaky, seeing some success in May and June, but experiencing a stretch in July during which he retired only seven of 19 batters, and surrendered six runs.
Ryan Sommers of Crashburn Alley commented, "Free passes aside, Hollands demonstrated the ability to generate swings and misses, and had the Goddess of Outcomes been a bit fairer to him, he may have been within spitting distance of league average effectiveness.
It’s not impossible to imagine Hollands as a reliable medium leverage reliever — sorry, Ryne, I meant “7th inning guy” — if he can improve his control and be able to attack hitters with his slider more frequently in pitcher’s counts.
[18] As spring training 2015 began, Hollands noted that he was not taking a spot in the bullpen for granted and that he expected to compete with several other lefties.
[22] A "funky" lefty who "throws hard and looks deceptive," Hollands' fastball hovers around 93 miles per hour (150 km/h) but can modestly exceed that at times, a drastic increase from his velocity while pitching in the minor leagues, and a primary reason for his emergence on the Phillies' major league pitching staff.
[17] At times, he struggles with his control, and issues walks with relative frequency, but as a young pitcher, shows potential to develop if he can avoid nibbling, and focus on directly attacking hitters with better command of his pitches within the strike zone.