"All of Garrett Crochet's pitches were really good. Except his changeup. That one was just okay. His four-seam was dominant, his cutter racked up strikes, and nobody could touch his sweeper. What made him truly great, however, was his sinker. Last season, lefties had a .307 on-base percentage against Crochet. He started throwing the sinker in August 2024. Nobody hit it out of the infield."
"This season, he ramped up the usage, throwing it 37% of the time against lefties. He located it over the inside part of the plate, and nobody could square up the ball. Lefties hit .176 against the pitch with a 70% ground ball rate. Their on-base percentage against Crochet fell from .307 to .193. According to this guy named Rick and this other guy named Rob on Twitter, that's the ninth-lowest OBP in the history of the sport."
"When Aroldis Chapman was signed, it was questioned for more reasons than one. In terms of on-field reasons, walks were a big factor. Prior to this season, Chapman had registered a walk rate over 14% in each of his previous four seasons. This year, he cut his walk rate down to 6.6%, making him one of the most dominant relievers in the league."
Garrett Crochet possessed dominant four-seam, cutter, and sweeper offerings, but his sinker became the defining pitch. He began throwing the sinker in August 2024; last season lefties compiled a .307 on-base percentage against him and nobody hit the sinker out of the infield. In the current season he used the sinker 37% of the time versus lefties, locating it inside; lefties hit .176 with a 70% ground-ball rate and their OBP versus him fell from .307 to .193. A Twitter analysis labeled that OBP among the lowest in history. Aroldis Chapman reduced his walk rate from over 14% to 6.6% this year. Use of PitchCom for location calls improved his command and enabled more glove-side, low sliders (51% glove-side, 61% low), producing a 34% putaway rate alongside high in-zone velocity.
Read at Over the Monster
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]