Chris Sale gives Atlanta's rotation a unique look
The Atlanta Braves went out of type a bit with their trade for Chris Sale from the Boston Red Sox just over a week ago.
And in some ways, they didn't.
Sale fits in with current rotation stalwart Spencer Strider as being a strikeout machine - Sale's career strikeouts per nine innings, 11.0638 through his 1780.2 innings pitched, is actually the all-time highest K/9 of any qualified pitcher.
(MLB's qualifications criteria require 1000 career innings pitched, or else Spencer Strider's 13.6 K/9 would lead all starters in baseball right now.)
And like a lot of Atlanta's pitchers, both at the major league level and of their top prospects, Sale fits in to how this rotation likes to work but in a really unique way.
The Braves like to work vertically
The horizontally-moving "sweeper" may be the hottest pitch in baseball right now, but it's not Atlanta's bag. You see, the sweeper has the largest platoon splits of any single breaking pitch in baseball, which makes sense - owing to its ~18 inches of horizontal movement to the glove side, it's a lot harder to use it against a batter of the opposite handedness, as it's breaking towards them.
Here's a rare sweeper from Max Fried, for illustration:
(I call this rare because in the last three seasons, Fried's thrown 5,431 pitches and only 66 of them were sweepers.)
See how it starts in the zone and ends up in the opposing batter's box, causing Schwarber to chase it?
For the lefty Fried to make that same pitch work against a righty, he'd need to either start it in the opposing batter's box and try to just barely catch the outside edge of the strike zone with it (called "back-dooring" the slider), or start it over the plate and try to land it inside on the batter without hitting them.
(Which is totally possible; here's new Mets free agent acquisition Sean Manaea doing just that.)
But for the Braves starters and their most used strikeout pairings - Strider's fastball and slider, Fried's fastball and curveball, etc - it's a lot of vertical movement.
It's a trait that Atlanta seems to prefer from their pitching prospects as well, with Hurston Waldrep's fastball and splitter pairing coming to mind here.
Chris Sale works horizontally
Sale's a unique visual look for opposing batters, with a lower lefty arm slot. With that lower lefty slot, Sale's pitches are all released from outside the body, with his release point actually being in the lefty's batters box (and pretty low - his release point is only 5.2 ft off the ground, remarkable to think about when you account for Sale's 6'6 frame.) To throw a fastball down the middle, it needs to move horizontally.
And so because of that, the expectation is that Sale's going work laterally, throwing some pitches inside, some outside, and moving a batter's eyes from side to side.
And with his ancillary options, he does. The changeup, thrown 13.1% of the time, is mostly used against righties. It's a valuable addition to the arsenal of any lefty pitcher, and Sale's features an above-average 18.4 inches of break back to the armside (so away from a right-handed hitter). The sinker, used only 6.3% of the time, is the changeup's replacement for lefty hitters and also features above-average movement, running 19.8 inches.
But those are all fallback options. The slider's where Chris Sale has made his money, and it's a master of both horizontal and vertical movement.
Chris Sale's slider is superb
It's safe to say that Sale's slider might be one of the most unique and effective pitches in baseball. Featuring both above-average horizontal and vertical movement, Sale's slider allowed a batting average of only .162 last season.
The standard slider is coming across the plate, similar to the fastball, but ending below the zone:
But it's how Sale uses the slider that's so good - he can either land it in the zone for a strike, drop it below the zone for a whiff (even spiking it into the dirt), or bring it both inside and below the zone.
Sale's control over the slider and where it lands is what makes it so effective. Watch these three strikeouts - slider down and in, fastball away, slider away.
So how does Atlanta play off of Sale's unique look?
That's the tough question to answer. If Sale's presenting a difficult "sight picture" for opposing hitters, due to the horizontal movement on everything and the odd arm slot, how does the reliever that follows him use that?
Is it better to find someone else with an lower arm slot and horizontal weapons, in the "if it isn't broken don't fix it" vein? Or should you go with a more traditional-looking pitcher, so you can change things up before the opposing batters adjust?
The good news is, Atlanta can do both.
If you want a low-slot lefty that can attack horizontally, throw Aaron Bummer out there and let him get to work with that sweeper.
If you want to change looks, go with a high-slot righty with a vertical breaking "out" pitch in Pierce Johnson and his curveball.
Atlanta's work this offseason to build a robust bullpen with high velocity and multiple options of both handedness means the Braves are poised to be more flexible on the back end, with different ways to attack opposing hitters based on what's working (and not working) in that particular game.
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