Garrett Crochet has been overpowering hitters in his first season as a major league starting pitcher. In 27 outings comprising 128 2/3 innings — the woebegone White Sox have been especially cautious with his workload since the All-Star break — the 25-year-old southpaw has a 34.2% strikeout rate to go with a 3.64 ERA and a 2.83 FIP. Relying heavily on a four-seamer/cutter combination that’s augmented by a sweeper and the occasional changeup, Crochet ranks in the 92nd percentile for fastball velocity at 97.1 mph, and in the 93rd percentile for whiff rate at 32.9%.

Crochet sat down to discuss his repertoire and approach prior to a recent game at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field.

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David Laurila: Most fans are familiar with you as a pitcher. That said, how would you describe yourself?

Garrett Crochet: “I guess I think of myself as a power pitcher. I pretty much rely on two pitches, although I would like to maybe open the floor a little bit more for [additional] usage of the slider and changeup. Some outings call for that more than others, but to be honest, I haven’t gotten many reps with my changeup. It’s been difficult for me to incorporate that pitch very much in a year where I’m relying pretty much solely on efficiency. It’s been about not wanting to waste pitches. That’s why it came down to me using the fastball and the cutter primarily.” Read the rest of this entry »

If you aren’t a Detroit Tigers fan — and maybe even if you are — you probably couldn’t name the pitcher with the lowest ERA among those who have thrown at least 150 major league innings since the start of last season. That’s understandable. The hurler in question works primarily out of the bullpen and has just six saves to go with an 8-3 record over 111 appearances during that span. He also doesn’t light up radar guns or overpower hitters. Currently ranking in the 19th percentile for fastball velocity at 91.9 mph, he has a modest 21.8% strikeout rate (as well as a minuscule 5.1% walk rate) since first taking the mound in a Tigers uniform on April 15 of last year.

The pitcher is Tyler Holton, and what he does is record outs on a consistent basis. Pitching in a variety of roles — including having been used as an opener on seven occasions — and featuring a six-pitch mix, the 28-year-old left-hander has a 2.24 ERA over 161 innings during his Tigers tenure. Making his performance even more impressive is how he ended up wearing the Olde English D. Cast aside by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the 2018 ninth-round pick out Florida State University was claimed off of waivers in February of last year.

Holton discussed his M.O. on the mound prior to a recent game at Wrigley Field.

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David Laurila: Based on what I’ve seen and heard, you know how to “pitch.” Is that an accurate way to describe how you get outs?

Tyler Holton: “Yeah. That’s the simple answer. I go out there and throw strikes with multiple pitches. That’s probably the best way to put it.” Read the rest of this entry »

Shortly before Walter Pennington was acquired by the Texas Rangers from the Kansas City Royals at last month’s trade deadline, Eric Longenhagen wrote that the 26-year-old left-hander had “caught some helium of late after striking out 35% of the hitters he’s faced in Triple-A.” Our lead prospect analyst went on to note that Pennington had recently made his MLB debut, adding that he “has a middle relief profile with little margin for error due to his underwhelming velocity.” Longenhagen assigned the 2020 non-drafted free agent out of the Colorado School of Mines a not-overly-enthusiastic 35+ FV.

Through his first seven big-league appearances — one with the Royals and now six with the Rangers — Pennington has fanned 10 batters and allowed three earned runs while attacking hitters with an array of sinkers, sliders, and cutters (he’s also thrown a smattering of four-seamers) in eight-and-two-thirds innings of work. Down on the farm, he’d heavily featured his slider while fanning 82 batters and allowing 43 hits in 63-and-a-third frames.

His velocity is indeed underwhelming. And not only has Pennington been averaging just 91.7 mph with his heaters, his arsenal doesn’t include a breaking ball that sweeps or dips in eye-catching fashion. Your stereotypical power pitcher he’s not.

Asking Pennington how he profiles on the mound elicited some intriguing answers. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re not a Mariners fan, you maybe haven’t noticed how good of a season Collin Snider is having. While most of the attention — at least pitching-wise — has gone to Seattle’s stellar starting rotation, the 28-year-old right-hander has quietly logged a 1.01 ERA and a 2.07 FIP over 27 relief appearances comprising 26 2/3 innings. Moreover, he has fanned 30 batters while issuing just six free passes and allowing 22 hits, only one of which has left the yard.

Snider was cut loose twice over the offseason, first by the Kansas City Royals, with whom he’d spent parts of two mostly nondescript seasons, and then by the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had claimed him off waivers. The Mariners signed him off the scrap heap in early February, and they’re certainly glad they did. The sample size is admittedly small — again, he’s made just 27 appearances — but the results have nonetheless been noteworthy. To little fanfare, Snider has been superb.

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David Laurila: You’ve obviously taken a huge step forward this year. Did changing organizations play a role in that?

Collin Snider: “I think changing orgs had a big role in it. I had a meeting in spring training with the pitching staff here, and they showed me the difference in my numbers pitching ahead in the count and pitching behind in the count. There was a substantial difference in good results versus bad results. From that point on it was more of just, ‘Get your stuff over the plate early and often.’ My stuff plays well enough that I didn’t have to really try to do anything else after that.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tayler Scott is having a career-best season, and the primary reason is equal parts straightforward and confounding. Thirteen years after being drafted by the Chicago Cubs out of a Scottsdale, Arizona high school, and five years after making his major league debut with the Seattle Mariners, the 32-year-old native of Johannesburg, South Africa is finally featuring his best pitch. Now with the Houston Astros — his 10th big league organization — Scott has put his two-seamer in his back pocket and is throwing a heavy dose of four-seamers.

The numbers speak for themselves. Coming into the current campaign, the right-hander had made 39 big league appearances and logged a 9.00 ERA over 46 innings. This year, Scott has come out of the Astros bullpen 53 times and boasts a 1.86 ERA over 58 innings. Moreover, he has allowed just 32 hits and has a 26% strikeout rate. His seven relief wins are a team high.

Again, the four-seamer — a pitch he’d thrown sparingly in the past — has played a huge role in his success. Per Statcast, he’s throwing the pitch 47.4% of the time to the tune of a .120 BAA and a .265 SLG. Augmenting the offering is a new-ish splitter that has yielded a .122 BAA and a 184 SLG, as well as a slider (.220 BA,.339 SLG) he views as his third option.

Scott shared the story behind his fastball changeover, including why his four-seamer is so effective despite ranking in the 29th percentile for velocity, when the Astros visited Fenway Park earlier this month.

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David Laurila: You began featuring a four-seamer this year and are having by far the best season of your career. Given that your 92.6 mph velocity is well below the big league average, what makes it so effective?

Tayler Scott: “I learned about vertical approach angle, which is guys with lower slots throwing four-seams up in the zone and creating a flatter angle for the four-seams coming to the plate. They’ve discovered that gets a lot of swings and misses. That’s when I started to throw four-seams. Over the last couple years, it was a pitch that I kind of only used late in counts to strike guys out; I would never really throw it at other times. One reason is that I tended to have a hard time locating it in the strike zone. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, Michael Baumann wrote about how Kirby Yates has a chance to join Craig Kimbrel and Wade Davis as only relievers in MLB history with multiple seasons of 40 or more appearances and an ERA south of 1.25. Five years after logging a 1.19 ERA over 60 outings with the San Diego Padres, the 37-year-old right-hander has come out of the Texas Rangers bullpen 44 times and has a 1.19 ERA.

I procured subject-specific quotes from Yates for my colleague’s article, but there were a few other perspectives I wanted to glean from him as well. That he has quietly put up better numbers than many people realize was one of them. For instance, since he began throwing his signature splitter in 2017, the underrated righty has a 36.0% strikeout rate that ranks sixth-best among pitchers who have thrown at least 250 innings.

“It’s almost like a tale of two of two careers,” Yates said upon hearing that. “It’s before the split and then after the split. Now I’m getting into a situation where you could call it three careers in a sense — since [March 2021 Tommy John] surgery and how I’ve been coming back from that. Last year was good, but also kind of shaky. The two-and-a-half to three years off, I felt that. This year I feel more comfortable. I’ve felt like I could attack some things I needed to attack.”

Yates doesn’t feel that his splitter is quite as good as it was pre-surgery, although he does believe it is getting back to what it was. His fastball is another story. He told me that it’s never been better. Read the rest of this entry »

Eleven seasons after making his big league debut, David Peralta might best be described as a professional hitter. As clichéd (and definitionally daft) as that label is, it’s pretty much what the 37-year-old San Diego Padres outfielder is at this stage of his career. A reliable left-handed bat now with his fourth team — the bulk of his time has come with the Arizona Diamondbacks — Peralta is slashing .268/.327/.439 with six home runs and a 118 wRC+ in the current campaign. His career numbers are actually somewhat similar. Over 1,200 games and 4,492 plate appearances, the Valencia, Venezuela native has a .279/.334/.449 slash line to go with 123 home runs and a 109 wRC+.

Peralta talked hitting when the Padres visited Fenway Park earlier this season.

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David Laurila: How different a hitter are you now compared to when you reached the big leagues?

David Peralta: “I’m different now, because every year, every day, you learn something to get better, how to approach the game, how to approach pitching. That’s especially true now. When I first got called up, in 2014, you didn’t see that many guys throwing 99-100 mph. Now that’s normal. So, it’s a different approach that you have to have.”

Laurila: Have there been any notable changes over the years?

Peralta: “I’ve always been more simple and short, but I tried one time in my career to change my mechanics. It worked for a little bit and then stopped working.”

Laurila: This was when?

Peralta: “In 2022, in the offseason, I started doing something different with Michael Brantley. I started hitting the way he does. Again, it worked for a little bit, but then for some reason I came off of that and couldn’t find myself again. I ended up going back to my mechanics. You have to know what type of player you are, what type of hitter you are. I know that I’m not a home run hitter. I’m a line drive hitter, so I have to work on things that way.”

Laurila: Brantley hasn’t been a home run hitter either. What was he doing that you were trying to emulate? Read the rest of this entry »

Bryce Miller has improved on his 2023 rookie season with the Seattle Mariners. Especially notable are his ERA (3.46 versus last year’s 4.32), FIP (3.70 versus 3.98), and OPS against opposite-handed hitters (.685 OPS versus .917). At the same time, many of his numbers have been strikingly similar. When I spoke to the 25-year-old right-hander at the end of July — he’s since made two starts — his win-loss record and average fastball velocity were identical to last year’s marks, as were his FB% and HR/FB%. His strikeout rate differed by just a few percentage points.

I cited those similarities to the righty, then proceeded to ask him what differentiates this season’s version of Bryce Miller from last year’s.

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Bryce Miller: “I think that type of stuff is very similar, but the lefty-righty splits are quite a bit different. Last year, lefties batted over .300 against me. This year, it’s around .215. I think the addition of the splitter has been big, and I’ve also been locating better. If you look at the heat maps from last year, a lot of the fastballs were in the middle of the plate. This year, I’ve gotten them [elevated] a little better for the most part. So getting the heaters up and the splitters down has helped me out a lot with the lefties. That’s really been the main thing.”

David Laurila: Why is the splitter so much better than the changeup you were throwing? Read the rest of this entry »

In early April, an article titled “Astros Pitching Prospect Spencer Arrighetti Is All in With Analytics” ran here at FanGraphs, and given what the 24-year-old right-hander had to say, the headline was wholly accurate. In a conversation that took place during spring training, Arrighetti displayed nuanced knowledge of his pitch metrics while comfortably addressing topics like seam-shifted wake and vertical approach angle. He presented as a bona fide pitching nerd.

Four months into his rookie season — he made his major league debut with Houston on April 10 — Arrighetti is a nerd with an altered approach. The evolution of his M.O. has taken place over the course of an up-and-down campaign that currently has him on a high. Over his last two starts, the 2021 sixth-round pick out of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has allowed just three runs while fanning 25 batters in 13 innings. On the year, he has a 5.14 ERA, a 4.18 FIP, and a 27.9% strikeout rate in 105 innings.

Arrighetti explained how and why his approach has changed when we sat down to chat at Fenway Park this past weekend. My first question elicited an expansive, five-minute response, after which we shared a handful of additional exchanges.

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David Laurila: What’s changed since we talked in spring training?

Spencer Arrighetti: “I have a much better perspective now. When we talked in Lakeland, I was speaking with three big league spring training games under my belt. This is a very different game than I thought at that time. The conversation we had, as great as it was, left out a really big piece of what successful pitching is in the modern era. Obviously, shapes and velocity are really important. Arsenal design is really important. There are people who believe those are primary, but after my time up here, I’m not convinced that chasing shapes is the way to go. Read the rest of this entry »

Thomas White is having an impressive first full professional season. Drafted 35th overall last year by the Miami Marlins out of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, the 19-year-old left-hander has a 2.84 ERA, a 2.99 FIP, and a 29.6% strikeout rate over 76 innings between Low-A Jupiter and High-A Beloit. His late-May promotion to the higher of those two levels came for a simple reason. As our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen explained when assigning him a 45+ in early June, White’s stuff was simply too good for the Florida State League.

I had an opportunity to talk to the promising youngster when Beloit played at West Michigan earlier this week, and one of the things I made it a point to learn about was the mindset that augments his arsenal. I began by asking him how much of a role analytics are playing in his development.

“I’m starting to learn more about the actual numbers and how all that stuff works,” White told me. “At the end of the day, I like to just go out and get outs — I’ve never been a big tech guy — but I definitely know a lot more about my pitches now that I have access to all the data. So, I’m still learning, and I want to learn, but the best measurement for me is how hitters react to them.”

The pitches that hitters are reacting to include a four-seam fastball that has been averaging, according to White, 95.6 mph and 17.5 inches of vertical ride. He is also throwing a two-seam changeup and a sweeper-slider. Currently in the works, but not yet part of his repertoire, is “a shorter gyro pitch,” either a cutter or a hard slider. Read the rest of this entry »