Great Skubal article, dives into pitching evolution a tad

The Den
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I was going to put this in the game thread but I thought it worth another Tiger thread as it gets into pitching. Specifically the two different fastballs pitchers now use. How hitters had adjusted and pitchers counter adjusted.

Article starts about how hitters have adjusted to Skubal and he is asked about countering with nothing but fastballs, somewhat tongue in cheek. Interesting discussion then on…

# Talking pitching with an ace: Tigers’ Tarik Skubal on the duality of his elite heater

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There’s been a trend developing the last couple of years, especially among starting pitchers, of throwing two distinctly different fastballs – four-seamers and sinkers – within the same sequence, often playing them off each other.

“Oh, for sure,” Skubal said. “I’ve always thought every pitcher should have two different fastballs. Two pitches that are hard that move a little differently that can generate positive results, whether it be swing and miss, foul balls or ground balls.

“I think there’s a lot of positive stuff that happens from having two fastballs. They are balls. They are both hard and you haven’t even shown them any type of spin or changeup.”

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A quick history on this. When hitters, in response to the increase in over-shifted defensives, started increasing their launch angles and putting emphasis on hitting the ball in the air, pitchers countered with riding four-seamers at the top of the strike zone.

Eventually, hitters adjusted to those elevated heaters and pitchers adjusted again, bringing the two-seamer or sinker back into play.

But the two fastballs were most often used separately. Right-handed pitchers would use sinkers mostly to right-handed hitters and lefties would use them mostly to lefties.

Now pitchers are pairing two-seamers and four-seamers off each other regardless of which side the hitter is standing on. Skubal is a master of that. The sinker-four seamer combo is big for Reese Olson and Keider Montero, as well.

“If you talk to enough hitters, they will tell you when they have to cover two versions of a fastball, it’s really hard,” manager AJ Hinch said. “It’s much easier to see a ball out of the hand that you recognize as a fastball and have a pretty decent idea of what the action on it is going to be.

“When you have to deal with two of them, it’s an added tool in the arsenal. I don’t think we ever talked about a sinker and four-seamer being two different pitches before, but they are.”

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Think about the below and how fast a MLB hitter has to identify what he is seeing, it’s why I’m a tad slow on the he sucks hes trash. Baseball is hard especially with the fact that today’s mlb starter has 4-7 different pitches and typically 2-3 are above avg vs 15yrs ago.

I remember Miggy talking about seeing the spin on the ball as it came out of the pitcher’s hand and know what he was getting. Talk about processing quickly, then remember, Miggy woudl set up pitchers to throw him a pitch he wanted them to throw.

Here is the portion that brought the above to mind. Read the below and think about quickly you have to process and swing at an object coming at you anywhere from 87-100mph and then drop or movement.

I love this game.

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Skubal this season has thrown four-seamers 30 percent of the time and sinkers 22.6% of the time. In his last start against Boston, he threw them back-to-back nine times.

His sinker on average has 14.3 inches of induced vertical break and 13.5 inches of arm-side run. The four-seamer, again, coming out of the same slot, has on average 17 inches of vertical and just 4.1 inches of arm-side movement.

Good luck deciphering one from the other when it’s coming at you between 97 and 100 mph. Especially when you also have to honor his elite changeup and slider.

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Piece of cake. :joy:. Good find.

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I do like reading the pitchers hand in the glove and trying to figure out what pitch he’s about to throw. Bases have to be clear or else they hide their hand in the glove.

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I was able to get one of the best hitters in our league out by throwing cutter slider slurve curve. He saw the spin on a cutter I would keep a couple inches inside he would think a big break was coming because I would start curve there to hit outside corner or a slider for a strike.
The Vulcan is the nasties pitch of all after seeing everything going away from them all game. That makes good hitters look bad or buckle.

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