There’s a need for more off-speed
Using fewer fastballs is one way pitchers counter batters’ upper-cut swings
NEW YORK— Over five seasons as ace of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Gerrit Cole threw one of the game’s hardest, heaviest fastballs, and he threw it often. The pitch helped him make millions of dollars. Hitters swung through it again and again, and Cole seemed content not to mess with a good thing.
But when Cole was traded to the Houston Astros this off-season, a funny thing happened. He became more frugal with his fastball and ended up more overpowering than ever.
Cole has joined some of the game’s best pitchers — including Cleveland’s Corey Kluber and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw — in benefiting from a puzzling baseball paradox: In an era when pitchers are throwing harder than ever, they’re maximizing success by using fewer fastballs.
Pitchers — even ones with blazing fastballs such as Luis Severino and Chris Archer — are using more off-speed pitches than ever recorded. Some believe baseball could be entering a new age dominated not by 100-m.p.h. heaters, but by a steady stream of breaking balls and changeups.
So why is the hardest-throwing generation of pitchers ever, going the way of the junk-baller? One cause is baseball’s swing-changing batters.
“You can call it launch angle, or you can call it the upper cuts,” Cole said. “There are a lot of swings that are dictating breaking balls.”
Cole’s move away from a fastball-first approach is striking given the reputation of his hardest pitch. He topped out at 99 m.p.h. as an ace at UCLA. Under the guidance of Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage, Cole pounded the bottom of the strike zone with that heater, and for years, it worked.
Then baseball’s flyball revolution took flight — a movement of hitters using upper-cut swings. After never allowing more than 11 home runs in a season, Cole was tagged for 31 last year.
From 2013-17, Cole threw his fastball 65 per cent of the time — well above the league average. But this year, he’s cut that fastball rate by about 10 points, replacing those heaters with sliders and curveballs. The new look is working. Cole is 8-1 with a 2.59 ERA through 15 starts and leads the American League with 138 strikeouts.
“I think you’re just continually trying to mess timing up, especially when guys are trying to slug,” Cole said. “When they’re trying to hit it out of the park every time, you have an easier time changing speeds.”
Kluber and Kershaw, both Cy Young winners, rank among the league leaders in fewest fastballs thrown this season.
“Guys are geared up to swing for a fastball,” Kluber said. “I guess it’s almost rare now to see somebody actually, like, go the other way with the breaking ball.”
Kluber has set a career low with a fastball rate of 41.8 per cent this season. Same for Kershaw, who has dropped from a 72 per cent fastball clip in 2010 all the way to 42.8 per cent in an injury-hampered 2018.
“The hitters tell you what you need to do,” Kershaw said. “And for me, I guess it’s been throwing a lot more breaking balls.”