Decisions That Pitchers Make

Newsletter 25/100

Decisions That Pitchers Make

Today we go back 3 years. We go back to my first year in professional baseball, and some of the decisions that I had to make as I was forced to adapt to the professional game. I was dealing with some things that all pitchers deal with, and had to make a choice.

It is important to see what inputs a pitcher looks at when making decisions, good decisions are based on good information. You might not make a decision that ends up going well, but being able to sit in a decision and make it with conviction is important.

June 5th 2022

If you've followed me on twitter, you've almost certainly seen me tweet something about "Sweepers" or "Horizontal Break" for sliders, this is largely in part to a switch I have made this year in regards to what type of breaking ball I throw.

Personally, my biggest issue with a breaking ball to start the year was my dip in velocity, taking my Gyro Slider (0 Vertical Break/0 Horizontal Break) from 84-85 and making it 81-83 which is a massive drop in effectiveness from a gyro slider perspective. At the time, I was not sure why this was happening.

At 84-85 my gyro slider rated at 110-120 on the stuff+ scale (100 is average), meaning it was rated to produce results that are 10-20% above major league average.

However, at 81-83 my slider rated at a 68 on the stuff+ scale, which is almost a 50 point drop off from only about 3 MPH. This means my slider went from 10-20% above league average to over 30% below league average because of 2-3 miles per hour.

I was essentially caught in the middle, not fully committing to the velocity needed to throw a good gyro but not getting enough movement to throw a sweeper.

There are certainly other aspects in play regarding the effectiveness of a pitch, but raw movement is something worth paying significant attention too.

Here's the dilemma:

How do I go about changing a pitch that is my most dependable strike pitch without completely sacrificing my in game performance?

Well, first I had to realize what was mainly impacting those pitch scores. After looking at the pitch movement/velocity profiles, I realized that the biggest hinderance was the velocity, and the way to fix that was getting more movement without giving away velocity.

Allow me to introduce you to the sweeper:

In some games I realized I would throw accidental sweepers at 83Mph. These sweepers had -18 inches of horizontal break and were just as hard as my gyros that were in turn becoming "slurveish" and costing velocity. It was at this point I knew what do.

After consulting my trainer, we came to the decision I would need to try and throw two separate breaking balls, one that was fully committed to being a gyro slider, which means way less movement but more velocity, and another that fully committed to getting as much horizontal break as possible.

Why?

Gyro slider was my strike pitch, cant move away from this without sacrificing in game effectiveness gained from strike %. However, my new idea with this pitch was to throw it harder, and focusing less on trying to make it move due to the decrease in velocity from the movement. I would use this pitch when i need a strike, and plays similarly to a cutter that lots of pitchers are adding to their repertoires.

Sweeper was a was better pitch action wise, and adds significant value in term of Whiff% and Strikeouts, which are the most important indicators in the lower minor league levels. Some sweepers would grade at 150+ on the Stuff+ scale, meaning they're about 50% above MLB average. There's almost no way you would take this pitch away from your arsenal, especially when you can consistently repeat it.

As someone who has thrown their hard gyro slider for years and grew very dependent on it, don't hesitate to make a small change. Since this change my strikeout rate has almost doubled in the AZL scrimmages I have thrown in, I'm getting more chases out of the zone and have another look I can give hitters.

How does this help you?

Well, the main takeaways should be

What actually makes my pitch good? Is it Velocity or is it movement?

Can/Should I throw both?

If you already throw one, and can throw both I don't see many downside to throwing both, unless adding one hurts the other.

Example: in college I tried to add a Curve, all it did was make my slider slower and loopy an I never really had a true Curveball. I ended up having 2 bad pitches that were essentially the same instead of 1 good one.

If you have a good slider because of movement, maybe try adding a gyro slider where you think of it as a cutter. In my experience, its beneficial to have a totally different feel for the pitch so that the two don't blend together.

Always remember: you want to throw your best pitch the most. Do not sacrifice your best pitch to add another, always make sure your best pitch is at its best.