[Thomas Nestico] Jack Leiter was dominant over 5.0 IP as he allowed 1 H and struck out 6 on just 70 pitches. Leiter has transformed his arsenal to be more well-rounded while maintaining his elite stuff. His command was on point today as he completely overpowered Red’s batters. He looks fantastic!

5 comments

  1. https://preview.redd.it/6rmh9gse7ise1.jpeg?width=1131&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ce1f6132d92822e55e8c1519ee3d8cbecf5e21b

    Fair warning in advance, I’m gonna be spreading copious amounts of hype and sunshine pumping throughout this post so if you don’t want to read propaganda then go ahead and keep scrolling. Jack just threw his best outing of his career immediately after *checks notes* throwing the best outing of his career. If the trend continues at this rate we’re looking at a perfect game by June. Ok but fr I’m super proud of Jack and every time I think he can’t impress me anymore than he already has, he has a day like today. Also I’m gonna move the overall thoughts to the beginning and movement and stuff+ numbers to separate paragraphs so they stop getting muddled in the pitch breakdowns. If y’all have anything you want to see added to or changed about these breakdowns lmk. Ok anyway here’s a nerd alert Jack report for his Red’s start:

    **Overall thoughts:**
    This was without a doubt the best outing of Jack’s career. Yes I already said that, and no I don’t care. We’re seeing in live time a player who is maturing from a thrower to a pitcher. This is the 2nd start in a row he’s allowed an average exit velocity below 90 mph (83 mph today). He’s not trying to just bulldoze through every batter with his stuff. He’s mixing speeds, he’s keeping hitters off balance, he’s learning how to use his bigger arsenal in different ways and it’s elevating his game each and every start.

    Here we have a pitcher who last year threw his fastball 51% of the time. Even his last start he threw his fastball and sinker a combined 63.4% of the time. So what did he do today? Only threw his fastball and sinker a combined 31% of the time. Rocker’s fastball got absolutely lit up to pieces on Monday. The last 2 days as a pitching staff we made adjustments and threw way more breaking balls and off-speed pitches to the tune of back to back shutouts. Jack has a ++fastball and even still the fact that he’s able to adjust his usual plan of attack to only throw 31% fastballs and be in command of his secondary pitches as well as he was is exhibit A, B, and C for why he’s a completely different pitcher from last year and one to be excited about.

    Ok let’s get into some numbers:

    **Pitch usage%:**

    **SL:** 44%
    **FF:** 21%
    **CU:** 14%
    **CH:** 10%
    **SI:** 10%

    **Strike%/Zone%:**
    **SL:** 70.9%/45.2%
    **FF:** 73.3%/75%
    **CU:** 50%/30%
    **CH:** 42.8%/57.1%
    **SI:** 71.4%/83.3%

    **Movement Averages**
    **SL:** -.5 IVB | -4.5 HB | 35 inches of drop
    **FF:** 15.9 IVB | 3 HB
    **CU:** -10.2 IVB | -8.8 HB | 50 inches of drop
    **CH:** .8 IVB | 8.2 HB | 32 inches of drop
    **SI:** 13.1 IVB | 11.6 HB

    **Stuff+/Pitch Grades:**

    **SL:** 110 (63 grade)
    **FF:** 115 (74 grade)
    **CU:** 102 (54 grade)
    **CH:** 112 (75 grade)
    **SI:** 94 (47 grade)
    *(Reminder pitches are graded 20-80 with 50 being average)*

  5. He’s been very good. I have been a skeptic after last year, but he’s not giving up hard hits and he’s throwing strikes which was his problem last year. Even with the Reds offense looking like a slump, last year he would have started walking guys and giving them free base.

    Hopefully he keeps it up.

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