Editor's note: If you enjoyed this article, check out a couple more JajaBojangles' posts on the fastball and the changeup. A pitcher's Spin Rate represents the rate of spin on a baseball after it is released. a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight (Middle-of-the-road spin generally means straight fastballs without much movement, which was illustrated perfectly in the World Series when Alex Gordon homered off a Jeurys Familia quick pitch that had too much spin and lingered in Gordon's power zone. We learned a lot in the first year of Statcast, simply by being able to put measurements to things we could always see with the naked eye, like throwing-arm power and foot speed. It is measured in revolutions per minute. Seems like a worthy name, but its just as much about refinement and development as it is about design. Since this pitcher is above the MLB average gyro degree for slurves (30-40), heis limiting the amount of total break he can put on the ball; in this case, you would want to have the pitcher attempt to stay through the ball more in order to increase spin-induced break. In reality pitchers can throw 92 and have spin rates ranging from 1800 RPM to 2400 RPMs. Remarkably, in terms of pure spin, its unremarkable. We are discovering things about pitchers that were unfathomable just a year ago without this technology. This is where gyro degree comes into play. Hes having a historic season, leading the majors with a minuscule 0.62 ERA. However, the information can be used to help pitchers become better at their craft. The top four teams in terms of spin-rate on fastballs are the Astros, Yankees, Dodgers, and Indians. This is actually insane and so blatant lmao I zoomed in to make it clearer pic.twitter.com/9LQvADKzvF. There is much still to do and much to debate, feel free to do so in the comments. Spin-rate on a fastball can have different effects. If spin direction remains constant, an increase or decrease in gyro degree will decrease or increase spin efficiency (more on this later), respectively. Because they already know hitters have difficulty with that type of movement. Thats the reality of present day. Enough pining for days gone by, for the opposite end of that spectrum, we turn to soft tosser. - Unlock spin rate and all the pitch metrics - See your trends by pitch type - Track your performance over time It just falls a little slower. The infamous spitball. It hasnothingto do with strike zone on the left. Robbie previously a RHP with the Cleveland Indians for seven years brought the in-depth pitching knowledge and given my engineering degree from 30 years ago, I quickly learned the science and physics behind it. Let's look at two different curveballs from Richards that differ in spin rate by about 500 RPM. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. (Open Access). LP = 0.17 S_Speed + 0.11 S_Spin measures the pitcher's ability to induce a whiff on a four-seam fastball adjusting for the pitch location. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. This requires a basic understanding of how different pitches are influenced by the infamous Magnus Force. But if you tell me the spin parameter as I called it, was 0.2, I could tell you the lift coefficient was roughly 0.2. This is meant as a brief overview and discussion on this most meaningful of statistics, but is not a definitive guide. Lower spin fastballs the reverse, less swing and misses and more ground balls. This is the most common grip in baseball, so it is probably one that you are using already. MLB collected a few baseballs from one of his previous starts earlier in the season. Check out what else we know about everything spin rate / pitch design here. First, this is an average, and it's a fair assumption that some pitchers weren't relying on foreign substances as . . Week into the. Some pitchers have had success with higher RPM change-ups, but as a whole they are thrown with much less spin than the average MLB fastball. Peralta's 12.6-percent strikeout rate was the fourth lowest of 141 pitchers with 100 innings; the second-lowest spin pitcher, Brett Anderson (1,763 rpm) had the highest grounder rate of that group.VelocityHighest velo: 98.1 mph, Kelvin HerreraMLB average: 91.9 mphLowest velo: 82.1 mph, BuerhleHerrera allowed just four extra-base hits against his two-seamer in nearly 400 pitches. In 2015, there were 1,679 examples of pitches thrown at least 100 times. In this case his fastballs arent going to drop as much compared to the average fastball meaning he might have a higher chance of getting hit being down in the zone. You often hear so and so has a curveball with a 3,000-rpm spin rate, or a fastball with 2,800 rpm spin rate. In reality pitchers can throw 92 and have spin rates ranging from 1800 RPM to 2400 RPMs. Spin+ is useful because we can compare the spin rates of pitchers like Andrew Triggswho had an average spin rate in 2018 of 2,414 rpm with just an 89 mph fastball and a completely vertical spin axis (in x-z direction) of 269 degreeswith Carl Edwards Jr.who throws a 94.5 mph fastball that averages 2,658 rpm and an almost completely horizontal It is simply a gauge of probable results based on thousands of at-bats in game like situations. Bless You Boys, a Detroit Tigers community, By JajaBojangles We know that we can look at a group of pitchers throwingfastballs at the same speed, say 92 MPH, and those pitchers can all have different rates of spin on their fastballs. Then on June 3 against the Rays, Cole yielded five runs in five innings and his spin rates on both his four-seamer (2436) and his curve (2763) were noticeably below his season averages. By staying square behind the ball (indicated byhis single-digitgyro degree), Pitcher Ais able tomaximize how powerfully the ball resists the pull of gravity, noted by the 23 inches of vertical break(i.e. xERA is a simple 1:1 translation of xwOBA, converted to For eons, pitching coaches have talked about mechanics, command and control. And his fastball velocity has held steady at about 94.5 mph for the past six seasons. Now, lets look at a dozen elite MLB pitchers collectively and how they move their various pitches. His 2018 extension is [], [] I got interested in spin rate, one of the newer Statcast measurements of a pitcher. Hacking The Kinetic Chain: Hitting Is Available For. Garrett Richards has a devastating Curve. From: Baseball Spin and Pitchers Performance: Kanosue et al. We will hopefully answer some common questions that we receive and well as link out to resources that weve found helpful in understanding spin rate. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. This was best typified by Lance McCullers (who will show up again shortly) throwing 24 straight curve balls to Yankees hitters, completely dominating them. Picture from: Baseball Spin and Pitchers Performance: Kanosue, et al. Theyre basically the same pitch, even though theyre gripped differently. The plots of Sikorsky, Watts, Alaways (yes, me), etc. By Bahram Shirazi (BSEE, MBA, Co-owner RPP). In this instance the effects of high and low spin rate most likely equaled themselves out. This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff. [] first test is more of an extension of our last blog post about spin rate, but shows off a major plus of the Trackman radar device an excellent back-end that [], [] strike. The rough guidelines for an 'average' pitcher would be a pitch at 92 MPH fastball with a spin rate of 2200 Revolutions per minute (RPM). 0 marks pure transverse spin, while 90 is pure gyroscopic (bullet/football spiral) spin. Unfortunately, MLB and other statistic collecting agencies have yet to recognize our pioneering efforts into the field of baseball statistics. These are simply measurements of the amount of spin that contributes to a balls movement. A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that It's often difficult to differentiate between a curve and a knuckle curve, though some pitchers swear by it. When he did, it wasn't just good, it was absurd. 0 marks pure transverse spin, while 90 is pure gyroscopic (bullet/football spiral) spin. A sweeping, high spin rate curve will get more swings, but some of those will be harder hit than those of a more vertical curve ball. It sat right in the middle of Gordon's murder zone, and he tied the first game of the 2015 World Series, setting the stage for the Royal's eventual victory and the Met's eventual doom. This article is a bit of a crash course on the science of ball movement (also commonly referred to as the break). Burnes ditched his four-seamer last season after opponents hit .425 against it in 2019. Making spin rate more useful over a wide range of pitchers of varying velocities. Frankly, without it you see the forest, but you dont see the tree limbs. We can design new pitches all day long, but first lets evaluate a pitchers existing stuff and see where he can improve. Gyro spin generates NO movement (reviewed below), The baseball on the left spinning along the vertical dashed red line, will have movement to the left or right, as Magnus Force pulls it in one direction or the other, The baseball in the middle, will have movement up or down, The baseball on the right (with gyro spin), will have NO Magnus Force and NO movement in any particular direction, True Spin (x- and z-axes only): 1,806 rpm, Spin Efficiency (True Spin / Total Spin): 92%, Horizontal Break: +9.4vs. dead center on movement chart below, Vertical Break: +17.1 vs. dead center on movement chart below, Baseball Spin Axis: 00:58 minutes (just shy of 1 oclock). This idea was also explained further in these Fangraphs pieces: Training for Youth Pitching Velocity: High-Intent Throwing, Rolling Over: How Bottom Hand Supination Affects Bat Path, How the Axe Short Trainer Can Make You A Better Hitter, Youth Baseball Player Development Velocity Aging Curves, Rapsodo, Trackman, and Pitch Tracking Technologies - Where We Stand - Driveline Baseball, Spin Rate and Swinging Strike Probabilities | Exploring Baseball Data with R, Pitch Grips and Changing Fastball Spin Rate - Driveline Baseball, Long Toss and Lazy Thursday The Minor League Offseason Camping Project, Whats Hurting Bumgarner? Now this method of injury prevention hasnt been proven to be predictive over a large group of pitchers but its simply another variable for teams to watch. So you can see the faster the backspin the faster the air is deflected downwards and the higher the force pushing the ball back upward. We do have some evidence that spin rate is an innate characteristic, and is linearly related with velocity. Its really no ones fault. To more effectively compare SVR of varying pitchers, we can normalized SVR into a new unit, called SVR+, which accounts for the league average SVR of pitchers. More than a month into the era of increased scrutiny on the application of prohibited sticky substances to major league baseballs, spin rates on fastballs have fallen about 4 percent, as. The home run rate is down, along with just about every other measure of offense. For comparison, the charts below show the movement in dashed blue line on both charts for clarification. It's interesting that "sticky stuff" is the hot topic in baseball right now. I love this gif. The surge in home runs over the past two seasons only served to mask how pitchers are controlling the game like never before. Yup! Yet this offseason, MLB made the decision to alter the baseball slightly to keep it from flying so far. The chart on the left is a movement chart showing how far the two pitches steered off course vs. a gyroball at dead center. As noted above, some of these pitch types can overlap one another, so it can be a matter of semantics as far as what a pitcher calls the pitch.SpinHighest spin: 2,421 rpm, Daniel HudsonMLB average: 1,746 rpmLowest spin: 961 rpm, Nathan Eovaldi Eovaldi's pitch is sometimes called a splitter and sometimes a change, but he made an interesting move to add spin with a different grip, even though more spin on a changeup isn't really ideal. And when pitchers are moving at rapidly increasing speeds, observing and evaluating a pitchers movements with high speed data capture can be truly eye opening. In fact, the. This is on my short list of the best pitch ever thrown. But one stat that is starting to take exceptional importance is that of Spin Rate, which measures the rate at which baseballs spin as they approach the plate. Copyright 2022 Rapsodo LLC. The 2021 Starters I collected the 2021 pitchers who threw at least 150 four-seamers through June 14. Despite that, Hudson's change was his most effective pitch in 2015.VelocityHighest velo: 89.9 mph, Keone KelaMLB average: 83.9 mphLowest velo: 71.9 mph, Mike MorinThe next highest velocity changeups belong to Lance McCullers and Jake Arrieta, both at 89.4 mph. Curve balls today are not your grandpas big loopy silly bugs bunny slow hooks. All of this is Active Spin. Spin rate is one of the newer and more prominent statistical tools. Drew Pomeranz's curve has made him a force to be reckoned with. Advancements in technology have brought newly available data on baseball spin rate and pitch movement and other valuable information to the doorsteps of commercial baseball facilities and the future will be never be the same (what!?). Now the highest spin fastball is spinning at faster than what weve seen in MLB pitchers, but the point still stands. moments begin to accumulate. The new mix has made his entire repertoire much more effective. Magnus Force is basically what creates the deviation from a baseballs expected path by creating what everyone refers to as movement. DeGroms spin rates have hardly changed over the past four seasons. Craig Kimbrel- 2.499+ RPM Knuckle Curve Ball. I miss him. [] The data suggests two reasons why, both of which could be correlated. What's the average spin rate and velocity for each pitch type? The event of an individual pitcher improving their average spin rate from 2300 RPM to 2500 RPM across seasons, for example, is a far more likely suspect of cheating than a pitcher who simply has a consistently high average spin rate of 2550 RPM. The movement of a pitch is defined in inches, both in Bauer's spin rates were down about 10 percent across the board. We're living in the future.Onward!FOUR-SEAM FASTBALLOn fastballs, we learned that high spin tends to lead to swinging strikes and fly balls, while low spin gets grounders. What MLB may not have expected is the less-dense and ever-so-slightly lighter baseball has become yet another weapon in a pitchers arsenal. I am willing to bet that at the highest levels of the game, the teams with the most advanced data analytics efforts, are training their pitchers to not only separate their movement patterns but telling them exactly where they want a certain pitch to hit on the movement chart. Yes 2400 rpm at 100 mph becomes a little harder to calculate, instead of 24 nonsense units, you get 24/120 = 0.2. A 59-point drop in opponents batting average on balls in play. So this data suggests that we can say there is an innate relationship between spin rate and velocity for. "http:":"https:";if(/^\/{2}/.test(i)&&(i=r+i),window[n]&&window[n].initialized)window[n].process&&window[n].process();else if(!e.getElementById(s)){var a=e.createElement("script");a.async=1,a.id=s,a.src=i,d.parentNode.insertBefore(a,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async","//e.infogr.am/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js"); The 6th pitcher threw pitches from 60 80 MPH but was told to attempt to change his mechanics from pitch to pitch and you can see that the R^2 relationship dropped down to .541. Though both pitchers throw their curveballs with similar off-center spin directions and high spin rates, Pitcher B generates much higher break measurements by keeping gyro degree at a minimum. thrown with. Bauer has been one of the most outspoken pitchers on the benefits of a high spin rate. Hes lost velocity, and release speed correlates with spin rate. In order to understand pitching data, you need to have a good understanding of a few basic concepts, including: A deviation from a baseballs trajectory from the time its released until it crosses Homeplate. First, there are many different variations of the curve, straight, power, knuckle, 12-6, 11-5, etc etc etc. We use data EVERYDAY in strength training with great success. The rough guidelines for an average pitcher would be a pitch at 92 MPH fastball with a spin rate of 2200 Revolutions per minute (RPM). After your 14-day trial, become a PREMIUM PITCHER for only $9.99 per month or $89.99 annually to gain access to premium features. He gets incredible movement on it, and he can bury the thing anywhere he wants. For kicks, here is a separation of Verlanders Fastball, Curve, Slider, and Change-up. This allows Pitcher Bs natural ability to spin a breaking ball have more influence on the flight of the ball, exemplified by his high vertical break measurement. Alan explains that at a certain point even doubling the spin on a curve ball will have a negligible effect at a certain point. His spin rates are. Spin Rate Part II: Spin Axis and Useful Spin, This article was co-written by Assistant Researcher Michael OConnell, Engineering Intern Joe Marshand edited by Kyle Boddy. Most change-ups have 7-10 MPH separation between the fastball and the change-up, going off the idea that a change-up is supposed to get a hitter to think its a fastball, and swing over and early. A horrific all consuming monster that has been brought by the devil through his tool Chaz Roe to make hitters suffer. Spin rate is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood metrics in amateur baseball and softball. So this data suggests that we can say there is an innate relationship between spin rate and velocity for an individual pitcher but not across a large population of pitchers. The higher the spin rate the more the ball "rises". We see an example of what effect reducing gyro degree can do for a breaking ball in Pitcher Bs curveball. As you can see in the image, sliders have one of the widest groupings of different types of speed and spin. Is 40 a good score? A pitcher cant throw both pitches at the same time, so comparing them previously was impossible. To put it simply, these forces include gravity, air resistance, and the velocity with which it was thrown. This deviation or movement is mathematically measured against a hypothetical pitch (we call a gyro ball) that doesnt move at all. sink). By looking at the above chart, you should be able to deduce thatPitcher A will have success throwing hisfastball in the upper third of the strike zone and higher, while Pitcher B will benefit from keeping his fastball at the bottom third of the zone and lower. Curve balls, unlike fastballs, relying on top spin. He began this season with an incredible display of command, with 78 strikeouts and three walks in his first eight starts (52 2/3 innings). But if you divide your Bauer unit by 120, you essentially have the unitless tangential velocity (radius * spin rate) divided by forward velocity. Four-seam averages (2018-2021): 2379, 2530, 2505, 2552. Then you look at high speed video and it agrees with the data. For example, in the image above: Although a baseball could be spinning in multiple directions at one time, generally, one of those directions is the most dominant and where the net amount of Magnus Force will direct the ball. In this scenario, PitcherAthrows aslurve and PitcherBthrows a more of a 12-6 curveball. A pure gyroball (grey dot) is expected to go exactly where its thrown, as it has no Magnus Force pulling it in any specific direction (hence a 0,0 coordinate on the graph). Below is a good example of two sliders, #1 and #2. There are two release measurements that affect the overall movement profile of a given pitch: spin direction and gyro degree. The best pitchers have very distinct pitch movement patterns from pitch-to-pitch. Felix's change up is legendary, and its at the higher end of RPM and of velocity. In this instance the effects of high and low spin rate most likely equaled themselves out. In order to better compare spin rates at different velocities between pitchers we created Spin to Velocity Ratio (SVR). For example, in simple terms, a fastball may have a total spin rate of 2,000 rpm along all 3 different axes. Here are Bauer's average spin rates by start this season (again . If this 92 MPH fastball is thrown at 1800 RPM that means less spin, less Magnus force meaning the ball will drop further over its course to the plate than the average fastball described above. Here is another look at the same two pitches from the Rapsodo screen from the Pitchers perspective (yes the image is flipped): The solid line is the actual path of the ball and the dotted line is where the ball would have gone in the absence of Magnus Force. But our data shows that 9 out of 10 pitchers 4-seams and 2-seams move with little to no differentiation. The following chart represents 2017 overall MLB movement info on various type of pitches, all in relation to a gyroballs lack of any movement at dead center-grey dot (click here for more info on the gyroball). The basics being release speed, spin rate, extension as well as many other terms. If Pitcher As fastball spun with the same gyro degree as Pitcher Bs fastball, the effect Pitcher As natural arm slot and spin direction on the movement of the pitch would have been minimized, lowering his induced vertical break and making his fastball less effective. If we picture a four seam fastball, which is thrown with backspin, the more backspin the less the ball is going to drop over its course from the pitchers hand to the catchers glove. GameThread: Tigers vs. Blue Jays, 1:07 p.m. 2023 Tigers player preview: Nick Matons a pretty versatile guy, Watch Eric Haase and Kerry Carpenter go yard against the Yankees. Meaning that if one pitcher could throw harder under the same mechanics and same grip his spin rate should increase. To better illustrate gyro degree, letstake a lookdifferent pitch types and their profiles: As shown by his spin directionand 99.6% spin efficiency, Pitcher A throws his fastball with much more backspin than Pitcher B. Here is a link where Brandon does a stellar job on the subject. If Buerhle, currently unsigned, doesn't return in 2016, then Joe Thatcher (84.3 mph) and Jered Weaver (85.0 mph) would have baseball's slowest non-knuckler fastballs.TWO-SEAM FASTBALLFor our purposes, two-seam fastballs and sinkers are grouped together. Spin rates (in rpm) and pitch mix data are from BaseballSavant.com. Current: Interested in learning more about ball movement and pitch design, click here! Four-seam averages (2018-2021): 2362, 2389, 2477, 2425. If youd like to read more on baseball spin rate, pitch movement and or how the spin axis is generated you can click the links. Then came velocity and threw out all the old adages and wrecked the house. A 92 MPH fastball at 2200 RPM is going to travel on an average path to the plate. but not across a large population of pitchers. Staying down in the zone would be the best option because hitters should swing just over the pitch resulting in more ground balls. Spin rate also operates within the confines of the Magnus effect, which I have touched on briefly before, is simply the effect of spin on how much a pitch resists the effect of gravity. A baseball on its way to Homeplate can spin along all 3 different axes (x- y- or z-axis) at any given moment. In addition, his control has been impeccable with 93 strikeouts and eight walks in 58 innings. The chart clearly illustrates a trend that more velocity + spin = swinging strikes, with a few curious outriders. Notice that his spin direction and gyro degree are quite different from his fastball; despite these differences, he is able togreatly reduce the amount of induced vertical break on this pitch while vastly increasing horizontal break, giving him much more fade than what most would have expected out of pitchers with rising fastballs. How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. It's good to have high spin on a cutter.VelocityHighest velo: 95.6 mph, RichardsMLB average: 88.0 mphLowest velo: 79.7 mph, BuerhleRichards, again! Average spin rates. How quickly, in seconds, a catcher can get the ball out Otherwise, his strikeout and walk rates are almost identical to what they were a year ago. Some pitchers like Felix and Greinke throw their changes at very similar velocities to their fastballs, which is becoming more popular but historically not prevalent. Four-seam averages (2018-2021): 2322, 2410, 2779, 2822. Here are the contributors to each: If you spend enough time watching high speed video from the point of release, youll realize that baseball spin axis is highly correlated with the initial grip, the finger placement and pressure points on the ball at the point of release. This would also work hand in hand with monitoring a pitchers velocity. Regardless, its thrown at 2800 RPM, has outrageous two plane movement and it breaks towards the hitter, then away, then down. A pitchers release, extension, and grip will all effect the patch and spin of the ball as well. So in summation, Sliders are hard to qualify, but they seem to act on the same principal that more spin equals more movement and more swinging strikes. So, with all that said, lets get into it. ride). SVR is measured in rpm/mph, or spin over velocity. In summation, more spin isn't ideal for a change-up, but its not necessarily a deal breaker, it depends on the pitch and the pitcher who throws it. As a result, pitchers will be under more scrutiny with TV cameras and zoom lenses looking for any hint of cheating. Ouch. The reverse is true for pitchers who have low spin fastballs. The second-lowest spin belongs to Carlos Martinez at 1,380 rpm, and as you'll see, it's another example of spin not correlating to velocity.VelocityHighest velo: 85.9 mph, MartinezMLB average: 78.2 mphLowest velo: 67.9 mph, WeaverIf it sounds like we're repeating ourselves, we are: Weaver and Buerhle have the two slowest pitches here.KNUCKLE CURVESometimes known as a "spike curve," a knuckle curve is an odd creation in that curveballs are supposed to spin at high rates and knuckleballs aren't. The swinging-strike rate on the first group turned out to be 9.3%, while the second group was at 16.3% - a huge difference. This animated graphic from Codify Baseball plots 7-day rolling averages of four-seam fastball spin rates (in revolutions per minute, RPM) and velocity at the league level. Said differently, it explains how the ball moves vs. a hypothetical gyro ball (black dot) at dead center of the chart. Major League Baseball hitters have a collective .237 batting average, down 15 points from just two years ago. Peralta's 12.6-percent strikeout rate was the fourth lowest of 141 pitchers with 100 innings; the second-lowest spin pitcher, Brett Anderson (1,763 rpm) had the highest grounder rate of that group. TRUSTED BY THE BEST. We can use this LP as a measurement of whiff ability. Four-seam fastball spin rate: 53rd percentile, Four-seam averages (2018-2021): 2168, 2249, 2313, 2295. I have simplified things a bit, but you may have to read it twice anyway. Clayton's curve is legendary. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. These different types of spin, each have their own impact on ball movement: Z-axis: Lateral ball movement, side-to-side along the z-axis X-axis: Up or down movement, topspin or backspin along the x-axis Effectively keeping spin rate below 2500 RPMs of backspin guarantees the best chance at success. However it also depends on the break of the pitch and they type of curve that is thrown. High spin rate can be both good and bad, low spin rate can be both good and bad, it all depends on the pitch and the pitcher in question. Hope this makes sense, and appreciate the work youve done in the past. The more modern metrics being movement profiles, spin axis, and most importantly, vertical approach angle, which this article will be centered around. A curveball (beige dot) from a right-handed pitcher is expected to break away and down. Hardly changed over the pitch and they type of curve that is thrown horrific all consuming that... Even doubling the spin on a baseball after it is released about pitchers that were unfathomable just a year without. Throw both pitches at the same time, so comparing them previously was impossible in reality pitchers can 92... Spin along all 3 different baseball spin rate chart ( x- y- or z-axis ) at dead of! His entire repertoire much more effective the plots of Sikorsky, Watts, Alaways ( yes me! High speed video and it agrees with the data suggests two reasons why, of... 2018-2021 ): 2379, 2530, 2505, 2552 baseballs from one the. Put it simply, these forces include gravity, air resistance, and Indians blue on! Curve ball will have a collective.237 batting average on balls in play silly bugs bunny slow.... The plate pitchers are controlling the game like never before so far who threw at least times. Grip will all effect the patch and spin pitchers who threw at least 100 times outspoken on! All effect the patch and spin of the most outspoken pitchers on the.! ; rises & quot ; is the less-dense and ever-so-slightly lighter baseball has become yet another weapon in a velocity. To for eons, pitching coaches have talked about mechanics, command and control marks pure transverse,. 53Rd percentile, four-seam averages ( 2018-2021 ): 2379, 2530,,... 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