2017 New Pitch Tracker
This marks the fourth consecutive spring for tracking new pitches at Fangraphs. In 2014, the series was launched with a piece featuring both a retired and current pitcher and their insight into adding new pitches during the offseason and/or in camp. The 2015 tracking was done at RotoJunkieFix where I serve as the CIO which is just a fancy title for the guy that keeps a 20+ year old fantasy community up and running in his spare time. By popular demand, the 2016 New Pitch Tracker gained front page real estate here and I updated it throughout the spring with help from Jeff Zimmerman and others scraping the stories from the web and the crew at BrooksBaseball helping validate the pitches. That same support model will be in place this year for the extended 2017 Spring Training.
The follow-up work in 2014 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. In 2015, even more pitchers tinkered with new pitches, but the gains were not as definitive. I did not do a follow-up piece to the 2016 new pitches to see whether gains were realized but that list included as many breakouts as it did busts. Perhaps a look back at those pitchers can be done this spring while we continue to compile the new list of new pitches over the next few weeks.
(3/7 update) – Did a radio interview with the Kevin Wheeler show in St. Louis talking about new pitches
Without further ado, here is the list of new pitches we’ve heard about in chronological order with links to the tweet or the story with the details of the pitch:
- (1/22) Cody Buckel – working on a new changeup
- (1/28) Dylan Bundy – taking the mothballs off his cutter
- (2/8) Craig Breslow – new arm angle + life on pitches
- (2/13) Dylan Axelrod – new cutter
- (2/14) Jesse Hahn – lowering arm slot; sacrificing fastball velo for movement
- (2/15) Joe Ross – further development of his changeup
- (2/16) Kenta Maeda– adding a cutter
- (2/17) A.J. Puk – taking the mothballs off his curveball
- (2/17) Yu Darvish – taking the mothballs off his splitter
- (2/17) Kyle Muller – developing a cutter
- (2/17) Jon Gray – refining his changeup
- (2/18) Sean Manaea – re-developing his slider (going away from loopiness last year)
- (2/18) Lance McCullers – working on a new changeup
- (2/19) Tyler Eppler – working on a slutter
- (2/20) Tyler Glasnow – new changeup grip & delivery & going back to using a two-seam fastball
- (2/21) Jameson Taillon – changing from a 4-seam to a 2-seam changeup grip
- (2/21) Luke Gregerson – working on a changeup
- (2/22) Andrew Miller – throwing a changeup in camp
- (2/22) Tony Cingrani – working on a cutter
- (2/22) Aaron Blair – continuing slider that he debuted in final 2016 start
- (2/22) Adam Wainwright – wants to throw more changeups in 2017. Used it 2% in 2016; using a circle-change vs older straight change
- (2/23) Bruce Rondon – wants to throw more changeups in 2017. Used it 3% in 2016
- (2/24) Ross Detwiler – adding a cutter
- (2/24) Alec Asher – adding a cutter
- (2/24) Edwin Diaz – taking mothballs off his changeup that he threw as a starter in the minors
- (2/24) Bryan Mitchell – adding a splitter
- (2/25) Francis Martes – changing from a two-seam grip to a four-seam grip on his changeup
- (2/25) Tony Sipp – adding a two-seam fastball
- (2/25) Hector Neris – bringing his slider back
- (2/26) Raul Alcantara – adding a splitter
- (2/26) Chris Rusin – working on a slider
- (2/26) Eddie Butler – will use a two-seamer as his primary fastball
- (2/26) Brett Cecil – using more changeups (four-seamer)(usage has been way down since move to pen)
- (2/27) Brady Rodgers – developing a changeup
- (2/27) Christian Bethancourt – working on a changeup & a slider (per The Ringer MLB show podcast interview on 2/26)
- (2/27) Chad Kuhl – experimenting with a changeup
- (2/28) Sam Tuivailala – working on a cutter (per 2/28 Baseball America daily prospect report) as well as a curve
- (3/1) Carlos Martinez – working on a curveball
- (3/2) Kenley Jansen – working on his slider
- (3/2) Tim Adleman – working on a slider
- (3/2) Roberto Osuna – working on a cutter
- (3/3) Hector Neris – adding a slider to regular mix (3% usage in 2016)
- (3/3) Jimmy Nelson – trying a changeup again, but now with the splangeup grip
- (3/4) Brian Moran – added a slider
- (3/4) Mike Pelfrey – working on a cutter & being encouraged to throw more four-seam fastballs
- (3/4) Hoby Milner – adding a 2-seamer
- (3/5) Trevor Bauer – adding a splitter
- (3/5) Taijuan Walker – for a third consecutive spring (2015, 2016) , trying a slider
- (3/6) Mike Wright – addinga 2-seam fastball
- (3/6) Ryan Garton – adding a slider (observed in multiple Spring Training outings. See 4th inning strikeout of Russell Martin on 3/5 broadcast for good example) and Circle-change up (used in 10th inning on 4/23)
- (3/6) Luke Weaver – working on a slutter? and a one-seam fastball
- (3/7) Garrett Richards – dropping the changeup
- (3/9) Jason Grilli – a mystery pitch
- (3/9) Josh Hader – working on his changeup
- (3/9) David Paulino – working on a changeup
- (3/9) Rookie Davis – working on a cutter
- (3/10) Luis Garcia – working on a splitter
- (3/10) Matt Belisle – working on a split-changeup
- (3/11) Mike Leake – working on a two-seam changeup
- (3/12) Phil Hughes – bringing the changeup back
- (3/14) J.C. Ramirez – re-introducing the curveball to his repertoire
- (3/18) Kirby Yates – working on a splitter
- (3/28) Luke Weaver – one-seam fastball
- (3/31) R.A. Dickey – bringing back his curveball
- (4/1) Nate Jones – using a re-tooled change-up & taking the pitch off mothballs
- (5/2) Sean Doolittle – refined slider
Slutter is my favorite kiss jam