Cody Poage

You Should Be Excited About The Pirates' Pitching Staff In 2026 I hate watching quality pitching go to waste.

Time for some new content…enjoy.

I think whoever takes over the Rockies' front office (any takers?), they won't have to immediately worry about a lack of velocity to utilize, to mold.

But they have to find a way to generate strikeouts even to consider any modest improvement, plain and simple.

Take the pitching staff’s four-seam fastball metrics across the past five seasons as an example compared to their contemporaries.

14.4” IVB (29th)

4.9” horizontal break (30th)

93.8 avg. mph (23rd)

2270 rpm (19th)

Cardinals Four Seam Pitch Movement 2021-2025

I am curious to see what Chaim Bloom does for the Cardinals in terms of pitching development in the coming years. The organization has lagged in various respects dating back to 2021.

I’m very curious to see where Alek Manoah ends up…

MLB Whiff Leaders - September 13, 2025

A good evening for a ballgame.

MLB Whiff Leaders for Pitchers, September 12, 2025

MLB Whiff Leaders - September 12, 2025

Sandy Alcantara in his last six starts 📈

- 40 IP
- 11 ER
- 7 BB (3.9% BB%)
- 41 K (26.6% K%)
- 28.4% Whiff%
- 98.1 mph avg. 4-SM velocity
- 2.48 ERA
- 2.99 FIP

Before his TJ in 2023, Luis Garcia upped his cutter usage to 43.2%, with a 41.9% whiff rate. It was nice seeing that pitch in his return to ML action.

One of the absolute best websites on the internet.

Unfortunately, I think Kendall Graveman is done.

Unfortunately, not a surprise.

Kudos to Bryce Harper.

What a fun ending to Sunday Night Baseball.

11 inches of horizontal break with 23 inches of drop on this Mike Burrow’s changeup.

That’ll play.

Someone, please get Seth Halvorsen out of Colorado.

103 mph at the letters?
Yeah, no one is ever catching up to that.

All future Jacob Misiorowski starts are now in must-watch territory.

Is this 96 mph slider from Jacob Misiorowski one of my favorite pitches of the year so far?

Yes, it is.

Hunter Brown vs. Jacob deGrom. That’s in must watch territory this evening.

Colin Rea's four-seam usage rate.

OK, Colin Rea.

Has Father Time Caught Up To Ryan Pressly? From the outside looking in, the Astros decided to reduce payroll in the offseason.

Has Father Time Caught Up To Ryan Pressly?

That curveball to strike out Edman looking earlier was a thing of beauty.

Loved MacKenzie Gore’s curveball to strike out Tommy Edman looking. 56 inches of vertical break right on the outside corner.

A gnarly pitch.

Some Thoughts About Early Season Strikeout and Swinging Strike Rates Don't take these numbers as gospel, but perhaps we can start noticing some possible trends among teams to monitor.

Some Thoughts About Early Season Strikeout and Swinging Strike Rates

A New Pitch To Monitor: Yusei Kikuchi's Sweeper Howdy, it's been a while!

A Substack this morning about Yusei Kikuchi’s new sweeper

open.substack.com/pub/pitcherb...

Also, how about the Giants starting the season 7-1...

How about 36 inches of drop to go with 11 inches of glove side horizontal break from Ryan Walker's slider to strike out Luke Raley.

That changeup from Hayden Birdsong just now to strike out Julio Rodríguez was so good. Mercy.