2019 New Pitch Tracker

This marks the sixth 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 there was not as much news 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. Trevor Bauer, Nathan Eovaldi, Wade Miley, Jhoulys Chacin, and Marco Gonzales are some of the best examples from 2018.

Below is the list of pitchers that have discussed a new pitch, a new arm angle, or tweaking things with an existing pitch in 2019. To steal from the TSA slogan: If you see something (in the news), say something (to me on Twitter). Click on the pitches below for details:

• • Drew Anderson (3/17) – cutter
  • Trevor Bauer (3/1) – new changeup
  • Cam Bedrosian (3/2) – splitter
  • Jalen Beeks (3/19) – dropping cutter; returning to slider
  • Ryan Borucki (2/28) – velo up 3mph over last year
  • Archie Bradley (2/13) –  changeup
  • Corbin Burnes (3/11) – changeup & sinker
  • Trevor Cahill (3/10) – cutter
  • Patrick Corbin (3/8) – bringing back his changeup
  • Anthony Desclafani (2/16) – retooling changeup and curve
  • Justin Dunn (2/14) – changeup
  • Jack Flaherty (3/8) – splitter
  • John Gant  (3/7) – cutter
  • Austin Gomber – slider
  • Gio Gonzalez (3/21) – cutter
  • Jon Gray (3/7) – fixing his slider
  • Jeremy Hellickson (3/5) – slider
  • Kyle Hendricks (2/28) – increased curveball usage (last year worked on spin)
  • Jordan Hicks (2/20)- changeup
  • Yoshihisa Hirano (3/4)- curveball
  • Dakota Hudson (2/28) – changeup
  • Ariel Jurado (2/23) – four-seamer
  • Brad Keller (3/7) – changeup
  • Nick Kingham (2/22) – cutter
  • Dean Kremer (1/26) – working on a slider
  • Eric Lauer (2/14) – deeper slider
  • Joey Lucchesi (2/14) – cutter
  • Jordan Lyles (3/7) – arm-side cutters
  • Tyler Mahle (2/24) – scrapping slider for curve & adding splitter
  • Mike Mayers (2/14) – new curveball
    • (2/22) – and a sinker
  • Zach McAllister (2/14) – new splitter
  • Mike Minor (3/8) – refining curveball
  • Bryan Mitchell (2/16) – newer curveball
  • Casey Mize (2/17) – slurve
  • Frankie Montas (2/25) – splitter
  • Jacob Nix (2/14) – hi-velo curve
  • Roberto Osuna (2/15) – a Stroman-influenced sinker
  • Adam Ottavino (1/25) – working on…something
  • Chris Paddack (2/18) – curveball
  • Emilio Pagan (2/14) – 12-6 curveball 
    • also a changeup
  • Blake Parker (3/9) – cutter
  • Brad Peacock (2/13) – new changeup
  • Martin Perez (3/3) – added velocity & a cutter
  • Colin Poche (2/14) – splitfinger/forkball
  • Daniel Poncedeleon (3/3) – curveball
  • Rick Porcello (2/18) – re-tooling his changeup grip with help from Eduardo Rodriguez
  • Trevor Richards (3/1) – ditching slider for curve & adding a cutter
  • Eduardo Rodriguez (2/18) – a Sale-influenced slider
  • Hyun-Jin Ryu (2/20) – tinkering with slider
  • Justus Sheffield (3/7) – new changeup
  • Aaron Slegers (3/7) – curveball
  • Ross Stripling (3/8) – two-seamer
  • Robert Stock (2/14) – new cutter
  • Masahiro Tanaka (3/2) – knuckle-curve
  • Lou Trivino (2/19) – changeup
  • Michael Wacha (1/25)- mystery pitch (begins at 24:45 mark)
  • Adam Wainwright (3/5) – power sinker & splitter
  • Luke Weaver (2/28) – reconstructing curveball
  • Kirby Yates (2/14) – dusting off slider
  • Jordan Zimmermann (3/1) – tweaking slider