Now that the MLB trade deadline has passed, it is a fantastic moment to focus on the smaller stories and topics that do not become major news but still merit notice. Here’s a peek at the daily modifications athletes make to remain at the top of their game.
Right-hander George Kirby of the Seattle Mariners threw more pitches in the zone than any other pitcher in baseball between the start of 2022 and the end of 2023. Fifty-one percent of his pitches fell within the strike zone. That worked to his advantage since during that period, he had the lowest walk rate among qualifying pitchers and, although pitching less innings than the other pitchers at the top of the leaderboard, he was still rated as a top-15 pitcher.
Kirby, though, never stops striving to improve. He desired to knock out more men. And getting out of the zone is the key to getting more strikeouts this year.
“Getting guys with two strikes, I was too much in the zone,” Kirby said of his previous approach. “I’m trying to stay out of the zone a little more.”
This heat map shows the locations in 2022 where he delivered pitches with two strikes:
And here’s the current season in the same counts:
It is not a big difference, but he is been more active outside the zone, especially above the belt. In two-strike counts, his zone percentage has gradually decreased from 49% to 44%. In two-strike counts, his slugging percentage dropped from.393 to.356 while his swinging-strike rate increased. He is adjusted well, with very few hiccups.
“Practice helped,” he said. “I work through batters in my bullpen. It’s more game-like that way.”
Generally, the key to that practice was making everything like his fastball.
“I throw my splitter like a heater with my index finger curled. Don’t think about it too much,” he said of a pitch he’s throwing almost twice as often this season. “Mostly it’s intent. If I have that, it comes out the right way. Trust the grip, don’t try to manipulate it.”
When you see that the velocity is up on his slider, his curve and his splitter, that’s all part of throwing them like his fastball.
“I’m looking for both velo and movement. I think I have that with my slider and my curveball, and my splitter is a little harder,” he said. “When I throw harder, there’s more intent behind my pitches, and everything’s just a little better.”
Kirby must now be considered one of the leading candidates for the AL Cy Young Award. A pitcher of sorts!
“I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how to make adjustments,” he said, dry as ever.
Heliot Ramos likes going the other way
It is tempting to pull the ball, especially when it is in the air. This year, the slugging percentage for balls pulled in the air has been 1.408, while the slugging percentage for fly balls hit opposite the field has been.290. Heliot Ramos, a rookie standout for the San Francisco Giants, is aware of this, but he chooses not to pursue the pulled fly ball.
“I still like to let it travel,” said the large Giant. “I know I can hit it oppo and still hit a double or hit a homer.”
He is correct in that regard, as he has struggled.583 on fly balls to the other field, nearly a top-10 percentile result in baseball this season. Naturally, when he pulls fly balls, he slugs a 2.500 ERA, with five home runs on eight pull-side fly balls. So he is not even slightly tempted to go that way?
“Sometimes, when the time is right, I feel like I can just change the contact point and get a little bit out in front,” he admitted. “I try to.”
The issue is in committing too early and becoming overly eager to bring the ball out in front.
“When I get too far out in front I get disconnected, and I start chasing,” Ramos said late last month.
And it is possibly the most crucial aspect of his game to control there. He hits the ball hard, with a barrel rate that is only somewhat lower than that of Tyler O’Neill and Corey Seager in the top 15.His foot speed is among the fastest in the game, and once he returns to the corner outfield, his glove will be useful. Though only eight qualifying batters have reached that range in the major leagues, his strikeout percentage has occasionally crept into the thirty percent region. Ramos has reduced his strikeout percentage to under 27% this season, which has increased his power at the plate.
“It’s easier to let the ball travel and see it,” he said about the relationship between contact and power. “As long as I start early with my load, I’ll get there at the right time.”
Thus, there will be more of this, despite the fact that it is a remote area of a chilly San Francisco park.
Maybe he’ll be the first righty to hit a splash hit into McCovey Cove after all.
Tyler Glasnow’s go-to pitch in Pittsburgh was a sinker. He made an effort to obtain nice sink on the pitch and work the ball in and out. It did not work out well because he walked a lot more often than he struck out. Upon his arrival in Tampa Bay, the Rays altered his pitching strategy, converting him from a two-seamer to a four-seamer with a single glove target: the high middle.
“That helped a lot,” Glasnow, now a Dodger, said last month of the simplified targets. “Tampa was trying to get me to be a little bit more vertical in terms of how my stuff plays, too,” and it was in Tampa Bay where he halved the walk rate, jumped his strikeout rate into the stratosphere and became a dominant pitcher.
Now, though, he is reviving some of that old Pirate spirit. This season, he has thrown the sinker (now referred to as a two-seamer) more than any other time in his career, 170+ times.
He’s not quite throwing it like he used to.
“I’m throwing it like a normal four-seam in terms of mechanics,” he said. “I throw a bit different than I did in Pittsburgh. I was a little more mentally left-right back then. Now I’m throwing the sinker as if I’m throwing a rising four-seamer. Maybe I tried to get sink back then.”
Another difference between Tampa and now is that Glasnow feels more at ease when a catcher shows him several targets.
“I like an up target,” he said. “Now I can use a couple different targets. I’ll use an up-and-in target sometimes for the two-seamer. I’m not throwing as down hill anymore, so that target can help.”
Will Smith is not giving Glasnow the high/middle target he had in Tampa Bay, as you can see in the video above. With the sinker having more horizontal break than any other pitch he throws, a pitcher looking to add a little east/west to his north/south game may find that having that up-and-in target can help him get the proper movement on the pitch to enhance his repertoire.
Just another Cy Young Award candidate, making the little adjustments that can be a big deal.
Griffin Jax is not just about a sweeper
Griffin Jax and his sweeper could be the greatest pitch in the bullpen for the Minnesota Twins relievers. According to Stuff+’s ranking of the top three sliders, this one has the greatest predicted outcomes of every pitch thrown in that Twins pen at least 100 times based just on its physical attributes. Just because of its supremacy, it was worthwhile to ask him to model the pitch and its mechanics.
Jax, however, has an additional advantage over other relievers in that he possesses four pitch types with above-average stuff. He has good command. Could the former starter return to his previous position? It is a question best left for the offseason, but given how other converted relievers have fared this season, you have to worry.
I asked Griffin Jax to model his vaunted sweeper and discuss the mechanics. pic.twitter.com/sS4PaESxu1
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) July 13, 2024
Although it has not been evident in the splits yet, Nolan Arenado has been acting a little differently lately. Arenado is one of just two qualified batters whose bat speed has grown more in the last month than it did in the first several months of the season. Others in the top 15 who have found success with swinging harder include Jarren Duran (whose slugging percentage continues to climb), Bryson Stott (at least recently), and Luis Garcia Jr. (who has been slugging over.600 since July 1). Yordan Alvarez and Manny Machado also appear to have singled their way back to health. Just when the Cardinals most need it, maybe Arenado can still rescue some of his season.
Yusei Kikuchi, the lefty now with the Houston Astros, has performed admirably in his first couple of starts despite perhaps being a little too enthusiastic in declaring himself the best starter moved before the deadline. He has allowed four runs in 11 innings while striking out 19 and walking six. His diminished use of curveballs in Houston has made sense because his command has always been the question mark. Despite his lack of command with the ball, he has used a changeup more frequently in his previous two games. Thus far, he has shown the makings of a high-stuff, iffy-command, strikeout pitcher, and he has provided the relief that the rotation has been waiting for.
If Michael Kopech ends up close for the Dodgers in the near future, do not be shocked. He is by far the greatest four-seam fastball in that bullpen, and the Dodgers are using his cutter instead of his slider to strengthen his command, which is his worst pitch.
“The cutter is a pitch that I can just rip a little more like a fastball, stay through it a little easier and throw it in the strike zone and let the action play rather than the slider, where I’m trying to turn it over and be a little finer,” About the new pitch, Kopech stated. He also mentioned that ultimately a spot will be available for the slider and the new cutter.
With his new team, his location numbers have increased significantly in a short period of time. If the new pitch is the reason for this, he fits in more traditionally in the ninth inning with his powerful fastball.
(Photo: David Butler II / USA Today)
