"I've carved out a niche on this website as the guy who tries to explain pitch sequences and why they work. A high fastball can set up a low curveball. A sinker on the inside of the plate might help you escape a jam. Watching the game and trying to deduce what's coming next is part of why I love baseball."
"Stumbling through statistics after the Red Sox season ended, I noticed an interesting trend. Since pitch tracking was introduced in 2008, 2025 was the first season during which more than half of all pitches thrown were in the strike zone. The number has slowly been on the rise over the past several seasons, and 2025 was the first time it eclipsed the 50% mark."
"Hitters, as a whole, are best served only swinging at pitches right down the middle. On average, swinging at just about anything else is a positive for pitchers. Pitching is better than it ever has been before. Velocity is up, and arsenals are deeper. In 2008, 78.8% of pitches thrown in 3-1 counts were four-seamers or sinkers - they averaged 91.2 mph. In 2025, four-seamers and sinkers accounted for only 65.8% of 3-1 pitches and averaged 94.1 mph."
Hitting remains extremely difficult, and pitch sequencing plays a critical strategic role. Since pitch tracking began in 2008, 2025 marked the first season with more than half of all pitches thrown in the strike zone, a shift that appears intentional given the hundreds of thousands of pitches each season. Swinging is most beneficial only on pitches down the middle; swinging elsewhere tends to favor pitchers. Pitching quality has improved with higher velocity and deeper arsenals, and the composition and speed of 3-1 fastballs shifted notably between 2008 and 2025.
Read at Over the Monster
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