On Ryan Pressly's Release Point, Pitch Mix

Looking at Pressly’s vertical release points (which have natural variance over the course of the season) there was some splitting of his release points of his fastball and slider in May of 2017 (in which he put up an ERA of 11.00). In other words, his release points were getting further away from each other, potentially resulting in tipping his fastball or slider to opposing hitters. Thus far in 2018, his vertical release points have been extremely consistent, he’s even brought the release of his fastball and slider closer together.

Let’s check in on Pressly’s slider. Here’s a snapshot of Pressly’s slider location in 2017.

Here’s the 2018 version so far.

So far so good. Not only is Pressly throwing his slider a significant amount more, he’s doing do with infinitely better command. Pressly has consistently located breaking pitches down and away from RHH and down and in to LHH thus far in 2018. The results have been highly effective.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in baseball, there have been some notable starting pitching performances this season. New names like Ohtani have impressed, and established powerhouses like Scherzer have continued to dominate. Two pitchers who have made notable strides in 2018 are Astros Gerrit Cole and Diamondbacks Patrick Corbin. While these two pitchers didn’t start the season with the same pedigree, both have something in common. They’ve moved away from their fastball in favor of an increased reliance on a dominant breaking pitch.

Recent seasons have seen analytically inclined teams moving front line starting pitchers away from ‘establishing the fastball’ to relying on their best breaking pitch. This is hardly a ground-breaking thought. Throw what you throw best, more of the time. For both Cole and Corbin, a shift in pitch-mix has had an incredible impact on their early 2018 performance. Consider the following:

OK, who cares? Well, this shift in starting pitcher pitch mix has been coupled with pitchers throwing an increased number of pitches outside the strike zone. But what about relievers? What are the implications for relief pitchers who throw more than two pitches dabbling with their pitch mix? Here’s a look at Ryan Pressly’s mix over the last two seasons.

It’s extremely early in the season, so there’s a chance Pressly’s breaking pitch usage will revert to something resembling last year. Throughout his career, he has oscillated between throwing his breaking pitches in the range of 40%-50%, although never with such control. Pressly has even seen small increases in spin rate of both his slider and curveball in 2018.

The adjustment in his pitch mix so far however (combined with much improved command) is similar to those of Cole and Corbin and has had strikingly similar results. It’s also probable that Pressly will come back down to earth in the near future. However, his start is one of the few encouraging signs for a Twins team whose relief pitching as a whole, has been a severe letdown in 2018.