Alex Fast

This is a fun one.

HR on pitches outside the zone:

Cal Raleigh: 10 (leads MLB)
Aaron Judge: 0

Hahaha. Win/win my friend!

Thank you!!!

We're all winners here

Totally missed this! Thanks so much, @benclemens.bsky.social. Saw your shoutout in the FG piece, too. Thanks so much for doing that.

Last night, George Kirby struck out Jackson Holliday on an absolutely fantastic slider down and in.

Before that, he threw a splitter down and away that ran outside the zone (Holliday fouled it off).

Here are those pitches overlaid.

Cant help it
i.imgflip.com/9vw6pn.jpg

SLG allowed against 7, 8, 9 hitters.

21. LAD: .377
22. ATH: .381
23. PHI: .384
24. ARI: .386
25. TB: .389
26. CHW: .394
27. PIT: .406
28. COL: .419
29. WAS: .454
30. BAL: .457

Pitchers most negatively impacted by defense to begin the year (OAA):

1. Fried: -7
2. T Williams: -6
3. Verlander: -4
4. Spence: -4
5. Paddack: -4
6. Kremer: -4
7. B Keller: -4
8. Houck: -4
9. Eisert: -4
10. Clase: -4
11. Cease: -4

Good to be back

Really nice start from Sugano:

17 total whiffs - most for an Oriole starter this year
9 splitter whiffs - tied for 2nd most by an SP so far this year

Here are all 8 Ks

This Sugano splitter was SO SO nasty.

29 inches of drop.
13 inches of horizontal.

Just a gorgeous pitch.

SLG allowed w/ 2 strikes

30. BAL: .320
29. MIA: .314
28. CLE: .307
27. CHC: .301
26. ARI: .300
25. COL: .300
24. ATL: .295
23. MIL: .289
22. STL: .285
21. WSH: .281

@enosarris.bsky.social why do you think this is: Health? Less of an instance on elevated heat? Bigger focus on approach angle?

Something interesting I just noticed. We only have 5 years of public arm angle data but thru this early sample size...

Average Arm Angle is at it's lowest point in the past five seasons.

2025: 37.2°
2024: 38.1°
2023: 38.8°

Top pitches by SLG (min 100 thrown):

1. Justin Sterner's FF: .056
2. H Brown's FF: .056
3. Rasmussen's FC: .074
4. Holmes' SL: .077
5. Gilbert's FS: .094
6. T Williams' Sw: .095
7. Eovaldi's CU: .095
8. F Cruz's SL: .107
9. Canning's FF: .111
10. Sasaki's FS: .118

SL - slider
FS - splitter
FF - four-seam
CU - curveball

Baseballs top swing-and-miss pitches (min 100 thrown):

1. Greene's SL: 29.5%
2. Yamamoto's FS: 28.2
3. Meyer's SL: 23.0
4. Eovaldi's FS: 22.7
5. Ben Brown's CU: 22.0
6. Woo's FF: 20.6
7. Imanaga's FS: 20.5
8. Sale's SL: 20.5
9. Rodón's SL: 20.0
10. Ryan Gusto's FF: 19.6

Only one pitch in baseball has been thrown over 100 times and is yet to give up a hit.

Hunter Greene's slider.

Some changes Spencer Torkelson has made:

- Stands MUCH further back in the box (3rd greatest depth among right handed hitters)
- Slowed his swing down
- Drastically opened up his stance
- Cut down his swing and miss on breaking pitches (small sample)

Amount of teams with 10 or more wins:

NL: 5
AL: 0

Interesting thing I noticed re Heston Kjerstad:

55% of his batted balls have been to the opposite field.

That's the 2nd highest rate in baseball right now.

Small sample fun. Qualified BABIP leaders:

1. Will Smith: .625
2. George Springer: .588
3. Mike Yastrzemski: .500
4. Wilyer Abreu: .500
5. Spencer Torkelson: .474
6. Nathaniel Lowe: .467
7. Jose Altuve: .462
8. Ramón Urías: .455
9. Riley Greene: .455
10. Sal Frelick: .452

HR Totals:
LAD (12) + NYY (11) + BAL (10) = 33

COL + NYM + HOU + MIA + TBR + MIN + LAA + STL + PIT + MIL + CIN + TOR + SEA + KCR + CLE + SF + SD + CHC = 31

Hilarious that this is what the dodgers offense is doing WITHOUT Betts and Freeman

Lets look at league average SLG and wOBA on four-seamers by how much induced vertical break they get:

> 20" - .357 / .287
19" - 20" - .402 / .316
18" - 19" - .410 / .325
< 18" - .430 / .335

a close up of a man 's face with his eyes closed in front of a body of water . ALT: a close up of a man 's face with his eyes closed in front of a body of water .

Tomorrow is Saturday AND the Orioles game is on TV AND Povich is going up against Skenes?!?

Look at the swing Ogasawara just got out of Soto on his 69 mph CB.

Sandy Alcantara dots the corner with an 100 mph FB for the strikeout (the ball call was overturned via ABS)

Think I came up with my first ever @theonion.com headline:

"Sticky substance controversy continues to rock competitive dreideling circuit"