2018 New Pitch Tracker

This marks the fifth 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. There was quite a bit of activity on the 2017 New Pitch Tracker, but it has been rather quiet in 2018.

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. The follow-up to the 2017 new pitches showed that a few pitchers beneffited from the offseason work. Kirby Yates took a step forward thanks to his new splitter, Sean Doolittle refined his slider and had a big year,  and Roberto Osuna used his new cutter very well on his way to a successful year.

Below is the list of pitchers that have discussed a new pitch, a new arm angle, or tweaking things with an existing pitch in 2018:

• (11/12) – Mitch Keller – improving his changeup
• (1/12) – Stephen Gonsalves -working on his slider
• (1/14) – Lance McCullers – renewing his changeup
• (1/15) – Chris Gimenez – knuckleball
• (2/9) – Ryan Borucki – throwing a new slider
• (2/11) – Austin Brice – adding a changeup
• (2/13) – Julio Teheran – re-working the grip on his slider for tighter spin
• (2/15) – Justus Sheffield – working on a backdoor slider
• (2/17) – Marco Estrada – re-working his changeup
• (2/18) – Blake Parker – changing how he utilizes his curveball
• (2/19) – Ivan Nova – may bring back a mothballed slider this year
• (2/20) – Sean Doolitte – is doing more tinkering with his slider
• (2/22) – Dillon Tate – working on a two-seam fastball
• (2/23) – Mike Wright – adding a cutter
• (2/23) – Ariel Miranda – working on a new slider
• (2/23) – Felix Hernandez – tinkering with a cutter
• (2/24) – Edwin Diaz – is working on his changeup for a second consecutive spring
• (2/25) – Daniel Stumpf – adding a new changeup
• (2/25) – Marco Gonzalez – bringing back his cutter
• (2/25) – Jordan Montgomery – getting his changeup back
• (2/25) – Michael Kopech – refining his changeup
• (2/25) – Jhoulys Chacin – reintroducing changeup
• (2/26) – Kevin Gausman – working on a two-seam fastball grip picked up from Cashner
• (2/26) – Justin Verlander – bringing back the changeup he flashed in the post-season & refining his curveball
• (2/26) – Dinelson Lamet – adding a curveball & trying to gain confidence in his changeup
• (2/27) – Nate Eovaldi – adding a slow curveball
• (2/27) – Hunter Strickland – learning the Smoltz-style slider
• (2/27) – Archie Bradley – adding a changeup (threw 1 in all of 2017)
• (2/28) – Jack Flaherty – adding a sinker
• (3/1) – Dan Altavilla – adding a new slider grip learned from James Paxton
• (3/2) – Jacob Barnes – working on a curveball
• (3/5) – Francis Martes – working on his changeup to develop as a starter
• (3/5) – Kyle Hendricks – changing the grip on his curveball for more spin
• (3/5) – Trevor Bauer – re-working his slider for more lateral movement
• (3/5) – Steven Brault – adding a changeup
• (3/7) – Garrett Richards – is emphasizing his curveball in 2018
• (3/7) – Jerad Eickhoff – testing out a new changeup & grip
• (3/8) – Tyler Skaggs – adding a changeup
• (3/8) – Carlos Martinez – adding a cutter
• (3/9) – Cole Hamels – working on a “Kershaw-like slider“
• (3/9) – Tyler Lyons – working on a changeup (not going well)
• (3/9) – Justin Nicolino – working on a new slider
• (3/12) – Luke Weaver – adding a slurve
• (3/12) – Walker Buehler – adding a slider
• (3/12) – Hyun-Jin Ryu – working on the shape of his curveball
• (3/13) – Trevor Bauer – improving his already great slider
• (3/13) – Joe Jimenez – changing the grip on his slider
• (3/15) – Jason Hammel – changing the grip on his two-seamer
• (4/27) – Tyler Glasnow – added a slider in-season
• (5/24) – Michael Kopech – added a curveball in-season