2016 New Pitch Tracker
My interest in tracking new pitches began in 2014 for a couple of reasons. One, I was bored with the “Best Shape Of His Life” (#BSOHL) stories.Secondly, I had a lot of free time on my hands because I was unemployed by day and needed a distraction from the process of obtaining new full-time employment. Thankfully, the latter is no longer true as I’m gainfully employed by day but that doesn’t mean I’ve lost any interest in new pitches that pitchers are bringing to camp each season.
In the second half of the 2014 season, I posted a follow-up piece to see if pitchers had any gains from adding the new pitch. The data showed that 17 of the 23 pitchers that faced at least 100 batters in 2014 improved their strikeout rate, 16 of 17 generated more swinging strikes while 15 of them reduced their contact rates. Last season, the amount of pitchers using new pitches more than doubled but the gains of using new pitches were not as definitive.
Now, it is time to look at 2016 and see who is going to bring out new pitches.
By this date last season, 13 pitchers had announced new pitches:
- Jordan Lyles: split-change
- Nate Eovaldi: splitter
- Justin Verlander: two-seamer or a cutter
- Ryan Tepera: splitter
- Jose Berrios: two-seamer
- Nick Greenwood: sidearm breaking ball
- Seth Maness: curveball
- Lance Lynn: changeup
- Adam Wainwright: dusting off changeup
- Marco Gonzales: cutter
- Trevor Bauer: sinker & splitter
- David Carpenter: splitter
- Archie Bradley: slutter
That list picked up in earnest as full camps broke out hence the timing of launching this 2016 #NewPitchTracker. A few weeks ago, I asked folks on Twitter to submit any new pitch stories they found via this Google Form. The table below shows the results of the teamwork thus far and we will update this page as we find more stories or readers submit their own finds. Please continue sending in news bits as you find them and they will be added to the list below.
Lastly, this is far from a solo effort. The work over the past two seasons would not have happened without the help of Jeff Zimmerman as well as the folks over at BrooksBaseball.net. Jeff passed along a good chunk of the pitches last season and helped verify them as well while the BrooksBaseball guys were the final source of whether the new pitch was indeed news or in fact noise.
- (12/31/15) – Jonathan Gray: Curveball (source)
- (12/31/15) – Buck Farmer: Curveball (source)
- (2/2/16) – Matt Wisler: Tweaking Changeup (source) via @sporer
- (2/6/16) – Eduardo Rodriguez: Cutter (source) via @papelbeast
- (2/16/16) – Kevin Siegrist: Curveball (source)
- (2/17/16) – Francis Martes: Cutter (source)
- (2/20/16) – Sean Doolittle: Split-Change (source) @NotMrTibbs
- (2/21/16) – Porter Clayton: Four-seam Changeup (source)
- (2/21/16) – Craig Kimbrel: Spiltter? (source)
- (2/21/16) – Taijuan Walker: Four-seam Changeup, Two-seam fastball, scrapping cutter for slider (source, source, source)
- (2/22/16) – Jesse Hahn: Dropping the slider; adding changeup (source; source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (2/22/16) – Nick Burdi: Spilt-Change (source)
- (2/22/16) – John Lamb: Two-seam Changeup (source)
- (2/24/16) – Tyler Chatwood: Cutter (source)
- (2/24/16) – Sam Tuivailala: more Cutters (source)
- (2/24/16) – Ryan O’Rourke: Split-Change (source)
- (2/25/16) – Noah Syndergaard: Cutter (source) @isas03
- (2/25/16) – Alex Smith: Slider (source)
- (2/26/16) – Aaron Nola: Improving Changeup (source)
- (2/26/16) – Kyle Zimmer: Slutter (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (2/26/16) – Matt Boyd: Slutter (source) @smartfantasybb
- (2/28/16) – James Hoyt: Splitter (source)
- (2/29/16) – Kendall Graveman: Changeup (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/1/16) – Eric Surkamp: Cutter (source) @isas03
- (3/2/16) – James Paxton: High-Fastball & refined Changeup (source) @chrisgarosi & @papelbeast
- (3/3/16) – Koji Uehara: Slider, cutter (source; source)
- (3/3/16) – Nate Karns: Tightening curveball (source)
- (3/3/16) – Tyler Duffey: Split-Change (source)
- (3/4/16) – Jacob Turner: Cutter (source) @yancyeaton
- (3/5/16) – Dan Johnson: Knuckleball (source)
- (3/6/16) – Jimmy Nelson: Changeup (source)
- (3/7/16) – Sonny Gray: Splitter (source) @sporer
- (3/7/16) – Mark Sappington: Cutter (source) @d_russ
- (3/7/16) – Joe Ross: Splitter (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/7/16) – Blake Treinen: Changeup (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/7/16) – Taylor Jungmann: Changeup (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/7/16) – Andrew Cashner: Spike Curveball (source) @Mols10
- (3/8/16) – Michael Wacha: Cutter (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/10/16) – Kyle Hendricks: Curveball (source) @enosarris
- (3/12/16) – Hector Santiago: Slider (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/13/16) – Cam Bedrosian: Changeup (source)
- (3/15/16) – Garrett Richards: Changeup (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/16/16) – Drew Pomeranz: Cutter (source)
- (3/17/16) – Justin Wilson: Slider (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/20/16) – Ivan Nova: Cutter (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/20/16) – Brandon Maurer: Shelving curveball (source) @MaineSkin
- (3/20/16) – Joe Kelly: More RH on RH Changeups (source) @chrisgarosi
- (3/24/16) – Michael Fulmer: Cutter (source) @jeffwzimmerman
- (3/24/16) – Clinton Hollon: Two-seamer (source)
- (3/25/16) – Joe Smith: Changeup (source) @MaineSkin
- (3/26/16) – Enrique Burgos: Splitter (source) @ChrisGarosi
Is Lynn’s changeup part of his TJS return?