Giants Pitching is 29th in Strikeouts and Whiffs in 2024
April 26, 2024
Giants Pitching is 29th in Strikeouts and Whiffs in 2024
2 comments
It’s a pretty ground heavy pitching staff so I’m not surprised
Every starter, is getting fewer whiffs than last year, leading to fewer strikeouts across the board.
I included a look at fastballs in this chart because I think that tells part of the story. Baseball has continued to move away from fastball usage, a trend the Giants were at the forefront of under Andrew Bailey, and Brian Bannister. With both of those coaches gone there has been an immediate uptick in fastball usage and now the Giants are top 10 in fastball usage. Sure, there’s a bit of noise in that stat with Harrison and Hicks making up a bigger portion of pitches this season, but even Harrison is throwing many more fastballs (most in baseball), and nearly every pitcher on staff is throwing at least slightly more fastballs this seasons.
There’s more to this than just fastballs though. Every starter has a key offering that is way down in whiffs — Webb’s changeup, Hicks’ slider, Harrison’s slurve (and fastball), and Winn’s Splitter.
Not a fan of this trend. There is no reason why a staff with this much arm talent should be having this much contact hit against them. Sure lots of the contact is in the form of grounders, but that’s been true in recent years as well. Giants have led baseball in grounders for years so it’s not like they needed to make this change to get more grounders.
2 comments
It’s a pretty ground heavy pitching staff so I’m not surprised
Every starter, is getting fewer whiffs than last year, leading to fewer strikeouts across the board.
I included a look at fastballs in this chart because I think that tells part of the story. Baseball has continued to move away from fastball usage, a trend the Giants were at the forefront of under Andrew Bailey, and Brian Bannister. With both of those coaches gone there has been an immediate uptick in fastball usage and now the Giants are top 10 in fastball usage. Sure, there’s a bit of noise in that stat with Harrison and Hicks making up a bigger portion of pitches this season, but even Harrison is throwing many more fastballs (most in baseball), and nearly every pitcher on staff is throwing at least slightly more fastballs this seasons.
There’s more to this than just fastballs though. Every starter has a key offering that is way down in whiffs — Webb’s changeup, Hicks’ slider, Harrison’s slurve (and fastball), and Winn’s Splitter.
Not a fan of this trend. There is no reason why a staff with this much arm talent should be having this much contact hit against them. Sure lots of the contact is in the form of grounders, but that’s been true in recent years as well. Giants have led baseball in grounders for years so it’s not like they needed to make this change to get more grounders.