Statcast’s swords chief for each pitch kind in 2023
nn”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”thumbnail_url”:null,”kind”:”oembed”,”width”:550,”contentType”:”wealthy”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Sweeper: Sonny Grey — 23 swords**nnThe sweeper is MLB’s hottest new pitch, and Grey’s sweeper was higher than anybody’s in 2023 (sure, even higher than Shohei Ohtani’s). The AL Cy Younger runner-up held hitters to an .097 batting common towards his sweeper over 203 plate appearances, recording 108 strikeouts on sweepers with no single hitter taking it deep — making Grey one among solely 15 pitchers with 100-plus Okay’s on a single pitch kind, and the one one with no residence runs allowed on that pitch. So far as swords, disciplined stars like Adley Rutschman and José Ramírez had been amongst those that had been minimize down by Grey’s sweeper.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”Video”,”contentDate”:”2024-01-19T16:22:09.836Z”,”preferredPlaybackScenarioURL({“preferredPlaybacks”:”mp4AvcPlayback”})”:”https://bdata-producedclips.mlb.com/653dbbe7-1512-4ee2-91f9-5b426ecdee55.mp4″,”kind”:”video”,”description”:”Sonny Grey ‘swords’ José Ramírez, Adley Rutschman and José Abreu”,”displayAsVideoGif”:false,”length”:”00:00:13″,”slug”:”gray-swords-j-ram-adley-abreu”,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”season-2023″,”title”:”Season 2023″,”type”:”season”}],”thumbnail”:{“__typename”:”Thumbnail”,”templateUrl”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/picture/add/{formatInstructions}/mlb/y3su7nwcssg0c0oqyzuu”},”title”:”Grey ‘swords’ J-Ram, Adley, Abreu”,”relativeSiteUrl”:”/video/gray-swords-j-ram-adley-abreu”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Slurve: José Berríos — 23 swords**nnBerríos’ slurve, a giant bending pitch with above-average vertical and horizontal break, spearheaded his bounceback season for the Blue Jays in 2023. The slurve strikes a lot that it may possibly begin in the course of the zone and find yourself nowhere near a strike, which is how Berríos finally ends up with all these swords. He even acquired a number of swords on his slurve throughout his playoff begin towards the Twins, together with a strikeout of Ryan Jeffers.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”OEmbed”,”html”:”
José Berríos, 3Ks within the third.
5Ks through 3 pic.twitter.com/l0QDWABUXi
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 4, 2023
nnn”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”thumbnail_url”:null,”kind”:”oembed”,”width”:550,”contentType”:”wealthy”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Curveball: Blake Snell — 28 swords**nnSnell has a few of the nastiest breaking stuff round, and his wipeout curveball was weapon No. 1 in his second Cy Younger-winning season. The lefty racked up 109 strikeouts on curveballs, as hitters struck out in 62% of their plate appearances and whiffed on 56% of their swings towards it — each among the many highest marks generated by any pitcher on any pitch kind in 2023. When Snell snaps a curveball down under the zone, it is virtually unimaginable to put off — 19 of his 28 curveball swords got here on curveballs within the filth.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”Video”,”contentDate”:”2024-01-19T16:22:59.057Z”,”preferredPlaybackScenarioURL({“preferredPlaybacks”:”mp4AvcPlayback”})”:”https://bdata-producedclips.mlb.com/1dba67dd-1cb6-403e-bb83-c1e416d407e1.mp4″,”kind”:”video”,”description”:”These had been a few of Blake Snell’s greatest curveball ‘swords’ of 2023″,”displayAsVideoGif”:false,”length”:”00:00:19″,”slug”:”blake-snell-s-curveball-swords”,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”season-2023″,”title”:”Season 2023″,”type”:”season”}],”thumbnail”:{“__typename”:”Thumbnail”,”templateUrl”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/picture/add/{formatInstructions}/mlb/hygrmgqkd9vtkrlmpicw”},”title”:”Blake Snell’s curveball swords”,”relativeSiteUrl”:”/video/blake-snell-s-curveball-swords”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Knuckle-curve: Zac Gallen — 29 swords**nnGallen’s elite command means he is among the best pitchers at forcing awkward swings from hitters, particularly when the D-backs ace is working them up and down within the strike zone together with his fastball-curveball combo. Gallen’s 12-6 knuckle-curve, which induced a 41% swing-and-miss fee in 2023, is the hammer that will get the swords. You noticed that towards hitters like Christian Yelich, Austin Riley, Fernando Tatis Jr., Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Betts — who Gallen sworded thrice, together with for a strikeout on Opening Day.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”Video”,”contentDate”:”2024-01-19T16:24:09.499Z”,”preferredPlaybackScenarioURL({“preferredPlaybacks”:”mp4AvcPlayback”})”:”https://bdata-producedclips.mlb.com/c5e5bb48-a5ce-4f82-be93-5d5e9e0fd111.mp4″,”kind”:”video”,”description”:”Zac Gallen’s knuckle-curve induced a number of awkward swings in 2023″,”displayAsVideoGif”:false,”length”:”00:00:32″,”slug”:”zac-gallen-s-knuckle-curve-swords”,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”season-2023″,”title”:”Season 2023″,”type”:”season”}],”thumbnail”:{“__typename”:”Thumbnail”,”templateUrl”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/picture/add/{formatInstructions}/mlb/gy0k2tggqe2fallcwco9″},”title”:”Zac Gallen’s knuckle-curve swords”,”relativeSiteUrl”:”/video/zac-gallen-s-knuckle-curve-swords”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Changeup: Trevor Richards — 22 swords**nnYou won’t notice how good Richards’ changeup is, since he is not as large of a reputation as a few of the different pitchers on this listing … nevertheless it’s superb. The veteran reliever truly ranked within the 97th percentile of MLB pitchers in whiff fee (37%), 97th percentile in strikeout fee (33%) and one centesimal percentile in chase fee (38%) in 2023 — and that was all due to his changeup, which Richards threw 57% of the time and used to gather 78 of his 105 strikeouts. Richards’ changeup will get tons of motion, with 5 extra inches of drop and two extra inches of run than a median changeup. That is how he acquired swords towards hitters like Harper, Yelich, José Abreu and Marcus Semien.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”Picture”,”caption”:null,”contextualCaption”:null,”contextualAspectRatio”:”uncooked”,”credit score”:null,”contentType”:null,”format”:”gif”,”templateUrl”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/picture/add/{formatInstructions}/mlb/a9ofjv00hsbeesxdzlzi”,”kind”:”picture”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Splitter: Kevin Gausman — 14 swords**nnGausman’s splitter is the pitch that is turned him right into a Cy Younger contender over the previous few seasons. He is gotten over 100 strikeouts on splitters three years in a row, and his 127 splitter Okay’s in 2023 had been almost 50 greater than every other pitcher. Gausman’s splitter has terrific operating motion — it will get over 16 inches of horizontal motion, 4 inches greater than a median splitter — and when he throws it off his four-seamer, he will get tons of whiffs … and swords. Celebrity hitters like Aaron Choose, Julio Rodríguez and Kyle Tucker had been all victims in 2023.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”OEmbed”,”html”:”
Kevin Gausman’s twelfth and thirteenth Ks…and a couple of Swords.
Stud. pic.twitter.com/1VmZhVi1H6
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 7, 2023
nnn”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”thumbnail_url”:null,”kind”:”oembed”,”width”:550,”contentType”:”wealthy”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”**Forkball: Kodai Senga — 17 swords**nnThe Ghost Fork took the Main Leagues by storm and made Senga an immediate Cy Younger contender in his debut season for the Mets. The ace from Japan struck out 202 batters as an MLB rookie, and 110 of these Okay’s had been on his signature forkball.”,”kind”:”textual content”},{“__typename”:”Video”,”contentDate”:”2024-01-19T16:25:44.71Z”,”preferredPlaybackScenarioURL({“preferredPlaybacks”:”mp4AvcPlayback”})”:”https://bdata-producedclips.mlb.com/6f288a3e-1506-4354-bae9-2b24f327d734.mp4″,”kind”:”video”,”description”:”Kodai Senga racked up ‘swords’ together with his forkball in 2023″,”displayAsVideoGif”:false,”length”:”00:00:24″,”slug”:”senga-racks-up-swords-with-his-ghost-fork”,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”season-2023″,”title”:”Season 2023″,”type”:”season”}],”thumbnail”:{“__typename”:”Thumbnail”,”templateUrl”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/picture/add/{formatInstructions}/mlb/qoqhvfqgdi2mq46kkgrc”},”title”:”Senga racks up ‘swords’ together with his ghost fork”,”relativeSiteUrl”:”/video/senga-racks-up-swords-with-his-ghost-fork”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content material”:”Loads of nice large league hitters had their souls stolen by Senga’s ghost fork, together with J-Rod, Harper and extra.”,”kind”:”textual content”}],”relativeSiteUrl”:”/information/statcast-s-swords-leader-for-every-pitch-type-in-2023″,”contentType”:”information”,”subHeadline”:null,”abstract”:”Here is one new option to see who throws the nastiest pitches in baseball: Take a look at the pitchers who generated probably the most “swords” on every pitch kind.nStatcast not too long ago launched its new swords metric, which makes use of Hawk-Eye bat monitoring to categorise the awkward half-swings {that a} pitcher induces with a very”,”tagline({“formatString”:”none”})”:null,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”storytype-article”,”title”:”Article”,”type”:”article”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag”,”slug”:”david-adler”,”title”:”David Adler”,”type”:”contributor”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”player-tracking”,”title”:”Statcast”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-656629″,”title”:”Michael Kopech”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:656629″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-656756″,”title”:”Jordan Montgomery”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:656756″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-664285″,”title”:”Framber Valdez”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:664285″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-675911″,”title”:”Spencer Strider”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:675911″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-543243″,”title”:”Sonny Gray”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:543243″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-621244″,”title”:”Jose Berrios”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:621244″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-605483″,”title”:”Blake Snell”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:605483″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-668678″,”title”:”Zac Gallen”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:668678″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-670950″,”title”:”Trevor Richards”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:670950″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-592332″,”title”:”Kevin Gausman”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:592332″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-673540″,”title”:”Kodai Senga”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:673540″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”apple-news”,”title”:”Apple News”,”type”:”taxonomy”}],”kind”:”story”,”thumbnail”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/picture/add/{formatInstructions}/mlb/gat7gdc7g44kmn1oakgv”,”title”:”Statcast’s swords chief for each pitch kind in 2023″}},”Individual:656629″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:656629},”Individual:656756″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:656756},”Individual:664285″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:664285},”Individual:675911″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:675911},”Individual:543243″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:543243},”Individual:621244″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:621244},”Individual:605483″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:605483},”Individual:668678″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:668678},”Individual:670950″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:670950},”Individual:592332″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:592332},”Individual:673540″:{“__typename”:”Individual”,”id”:673540}}}
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January twentieth, 2024
Here is one new option to see who throws the nastiest pitches in baseball: Take a look at the pitchers who generated probably the most “swords” on every pitch kind.
Statcast not too long ago launched its new swords metric, which makes use of Hawk-Eye bat monitoring to categorise the awkward half-swings {that a} pitcher induces with a very nasty pitch (as popularized by Pitching Ninja, who coined the title). Dylan Stop was the general Sword King of MLB final season — however there have been swords specialists for each pitch a giant league ace can throw.
Here is the swords chief for every pitch kind in 2023.
Kopech may need struggled final season, however the overpowering stuff continues to be there. The White Sox right-hander nonetheless has his explosive fastball — his four-seamer averaged 95.2 mph with a really excessive 2,501 rpm spin fee, which helped it generate each above-average rise and run. So when he throws that fastball simply above the zone, hitters will suppose it is a strike till it carries previous them. Add in Kopech’s excessive velocity, and so they simply do not have time to cease their swing, and Kopech will get his swords.
The sinker is not actually a swing-and-miss pitch — it is designed to get floor balls and weak contact, not strikeouts. So you will not see a ton of swords by any sinkerballer. However if you happen to watched Montgomery dominate in the course of the Rangers’ World Collection run, it should not shock you that the left-hander topped the sinker swords leaderboard. Montgomery had a top-five most precious sinker within the Majors final season, and the swords are an indication of how efficient the pitch is for him.
Valdez’s cutter generated his highest swing-and-miss fee (44%) and strikeout fee (49%) of any pitch he threw final season — an honor that often belongs to his curveball. The Astros ace acquired some superb hitters to take some very dangerous half-swings towards his cutter, together with sword strikeouts of Matt Olson (twice), Mike Trout, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil.
Strider’s slider is possibly probably the most dominant pitch within the Majors. The Braves ace generated 306 whiffs and 139 Okay’s together with his slider in 2023, each probably the most by any pitcher on any pitch kind. And the slider is the pitch probably to generate a sword, particularly when a hitter errors it for a fastball. So after all Strider led the Main Leagues in slider swords. His slider acquired probably the most swords of any particular person pitch in baseball, and Strider even had yet one more slider sword than Stop. No hitter was secure. Stars like Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Corey Seager and Gunnar Henderson all had swords towards Strider’s slider.
The sweeper is MLB’s hottest new pitch, and Grey’s sweeper was higher than anybody’s in 2023 (sure, even higher than Shohei Ohtani’s). The AL Cy Younger runner-up held hitters to an .097 batting common towards his sweeper over 203 plate appearances, recording 108 strikeouts on sweepers with no single hitter taking it deep — making Grey one among solely 15 pitchers with 100-plus Okay’s on a single pitch kind, and the one one with no residence runs allowed on that pitch. So far as swords, disciplined stars like Adley Rutschman and José Ramírez had been amongst those that had been minimize down by Grey’s sweeper.
Berríos’ slurve, a giant bending pitch with above-average vertical and horizontal break, spearheaded his bounceback season for the Blue Jays in 2023. The slurve strikes a lot that it may possibly begin in the course of the zone and find yourself nowhere near a strike, which is how Berríos finally ends up with all these swords. He even acquired a number of swords on his slurve throughout his playoff begin towards the Twins, together with a strikeout of Ryan Jeffers.
Snell has a few of the nastiest breaking stuff round, and his wipeout curveball was weapon No. 1 in his second Cy Younger-winning season. The lefty racked up 109 strikeouts on curveballs, as hitters struck out in 62% of their plate appearances and whiffed on 56% of their swings towards it — each among the many highest marks generated by any pitcher on any pitch kind in 2023. When Snell snaps a curveball down under the zone, it is virtually unimaginable to put off — 19 of his 28 curveball swords got here on curveballs within the filth.
Gallen’s elite command means he is among the best pitchers at forcing awkward swings from hitters, particularly when the D-backs ace is working them up and down within the strike zone together with his fastball-curveball combo. Gallen’s 12-6 knuckle-curve, which induced a 41% swing-and-miss fee in 2023, is the hammer that will get the swords. You noticed that towards hitters like Christian Yelich, Austin Riley, Fernando Tatis Jr., Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Betts — who Gallen sworded thrice, together with for a strikeout on Opening Day.
You won’t notice how good Richards’ changeup is, since he is not as large of a reputation as a few of the different pitchers on this listing … nevertheless it’s superb. The veteran reliever truly ranked within the 97th percentile of MLB pitchers in whiff fee (37%), 97th percentile in strikeout fee (33%) and one centesimal percentile in chase fee (38%) in 2023 — and that was all due to his changeup, which Richards threw 57% of the time and used to gather 78 of his 105 strikeouts. Richards’ changeup will get tons of motion, with 5 extra inches of drop and two extra inches of run than a median changeup. That is how he acquired swords towards hitters like Harper, Yelich, José Abreu and Marcus Semien.
Gausman’s splitter is the pitch that is turned him right into a Cy Younger contender over the previous few seasons. He is gotten over 100 strikeouts on splitters three years in a row, and his 127 splitter Okay’s in 2023 had been almost 50 greater than every other pitcher. Gausman’s splitter has terrific operating motion — it will get over 16 inches of horizontal motion, 4 inches greater than a median splitter — and when he throws it off his four-seamer, he will get tons of whiffs … and swords. Celebrity hitters like Aaron Choose, Julio Rodríguez and Kyle Tucker had been all victims in 2023.
The Ghost Fork took the Main Leagues by storm and made Senga an immediate Cy Younger contender in his debut season for the Mets. The ace from Japan struck out 202 batters as an MLB rookie, and 110 of these Okay’s had been on his signature forkball.
Loads of nice large league hitters had their souls stolen by Senga’s ghost fork, together with J-Rod, Harper and extra.
