Great video as always, Lance. Though I wish my Mets hadn’t gotten cold feet, I’m excited to finally see a player of Indian descent make it to The Show. I once hoped it would be me, but it turns out that an 80-grade fastball and an 80mph fastball aren’t the same thing. 😆 Also, side note: Kumar’s first name is pronounced ku-MAR, accent on the 2nd syllable-apparently, he’s particular about it. (I’m just bracing for when Jays’ SS prospect Arjun Nimmala gets to the majors, but tl;dr: accent on the *1st* syllables-AR-jun NIM-ma-la. Impress your Indian friends 😆.)
After hearing Eno be sour on Rocker's Four-Seam (FS) shape in the last week I did some searches to see what pitchers had similar FS characteristics. I filtered on avg velo (>=96mph) and IVB for MLB starting pitchers in 2024. The two closest FS matches were Jose Soriano and Luis Castillo. Soriano's has a very poor SwStr rate of just 5.1%. Castillo does much better with a 14.2% SwStr. Neither of those two excel at extension. So hopefully Rocker's edge on that characteristic can help him get the most out of his FS. I do concur with you Lance that I'd like to see him try the splinker so that he has more varied weapons vs LHB.
Thanks for doing that search. 👍 As I mention in the vid, that 4S shape is mostly for limiting HR rather than swg strk. So while I agree that I want swg strk from a fastball, I’m fine if it has a long track record of like average xwOBAcon or something. 👍 I’d be surprised if Kumar puts up a 12%+ swg strk with the 4S. I’m more curious about whether it can limit damage versus lefties over large chunks of time.
I disagree on your "just copy Paul Skenes" comment, at least regarding tweaks to his change up. Given his arm slot, I'd be more inclined to say a circle-change type of hybrid grip would probably work better for him, to try and generate more horizontal rotation than a Skenes type of change up. However, there are a lot of variables that I don't know: amount of pronation, finger length and width, wrist flexibility, and feel or feedback he has for the pitch coming out of his hand. Also, if he transitions to more sinkers and fewer four-seams, then a change up that generates a little more horizontal movement would tunnel better off that pitch. There are reasons different pitchers find success with different grips and wrist stiffness.
It’s a slot thing alongside natural hand position. He’s just not behind the ball at release, and that probably helps him in creating his slider shape. Tough to carry a ball from a low slot. Not everybody can be Bryan Woo haha
I just need to know if I should start him in his first start in my fantasy playoff matchup? I want the K’s, someone talk some sense into me so I don’t do something stupid!
I'm curious, why is this called a slider? Kumar and everyone in the Ranger's organization has called it a curve and it at least to me looks like it has a lot more 12-6 movement than most other sliders, is there some sabermetric aspect of the spin or something that makes it a slider? Obviously I know that they have to call it something it's just interesting to me that it seems like everyone outside of the actual teams and players calls this a curve but others call it a slider
I talk about this at the 3m mark of the vid I think we get way too caught up in what pitchers call pitches but I understand that’s what classification is based off We have public measurements on how the ball moves and can classify based off that The actual movement of Rocker’s ball, regardless of the visual or how he throws it, etc, is more slider than curveball. The pitch is a) hard and b) doesn’t have beyond -5” induced vertical break, which is generally where we push into more curveball territory He’s holding a curveball grip and likely cueing that but however his arm unravels or hand moves, it doesn’t allow him to have a ton of loopy depth on the pitch like a standard curve
2:21 Is it even humanly possible to throw a curveball with a spin axis like that (basically an upside down four seamer)? I've never seen a curveball look like that.
Love the death ball reference, Credit former Tread coach Alex Kachler 💪🏻☠️
Yes! You guys have made your stamp on that pitch - well done 🔥
(And the Kick-change, you guys are everywhere haha)
I love tread
Solid debut today
Looked great!
Thank you for this! Even as a Mariners fan I'm so excited
Great vid. Mariners fan here but still love this kid…who doesn’t love a good death ball. Btw could you possibly bring back the screen shares?
I have some screen share stuff in mind. Those never got as many views unfortunately so I was always unsure if people actually liked them haha
Great video as always, Lance. Though I wish my Mets hadn’t gotten cold feet, I’m excited to finally see a player of Indian descent make it to The Show. I once hoped it would be me, but it turns out that an 80-grade fastball and an 80mph fastball aren’t the same thing. 😆 Also, side note: Kumar’s first name is pronounced ku-MAR, accent on the 2nd syllable-apparently, he’s particular about it. (I’m just bracing for when Jays’ SS prospect Arjun Nimmala gets to the majors, but tl;dr: accent on the *1st* syllables-AR-jun NIM-ma-la. Impress your Indian friends 😆.)
Aye! Thanks for sharing. Really appreciate it actually, never would’ve known this. 👍
Awesome stuff Lance, thanks! Can’t wait for tomorrow night!
17 whiffs, 13 of them on his slider in his debut. If this isn't an 80 grade pitch, I don't know what is.
🫡🫡🫡
Dude about to strike out 12+ on Seattle
Bet it😊
Lmaoooooo 😂😂😂
Summary on how Kumar can improve: copy Paul Skenes. Got it.
Sounds like a good recipe
We should all try to be more like Paul Skenes
After hearing Eno be sour on Rocker's Four-Seam (FS) shape in the last week I did some searches to see what pitchers had similar FS characteristics. I filtered on avg velo (>=96mph) and IVB for MLB starting pitchers in 2024. The two closest FS matches were Jose Soriano and Luis Castillo. Soriano's has a very poor SwStr rate of just 5.1%. Castillo does much better with a 14.2% SwStr. Neither of those two excel at extension. So hopefully Rocker's edge on that characteristic can help him get the most out of his FS. I do concur with you Lance that I'd like to see him try the splinker so that he has more varied weapons vs LHB.
Castillo's fastball is effective because of his release height
Thanks for doing that search. 👍 As I mention in the vid, that 4S shape is mostly for limiting HR rather than swg strk. So while I agree that I want swg strk from a fastball, I’m fine if it has a long track record of like average xwOBAcon or something. 👍
I’d be surprised if Kumar puts up a 12%+ swg strk with the 4S. I’m more curious about whether it can limit damage versus lefties over large chunks of time.
I disagree on your "just copy Paul Skenes" comment, at least regarding tweaks to his change up. Given his arm slot, I'd be more inclined to say a circle-change type of hybrid grip would probably work better for him, to try and generate more horizontal rotation than a Skenes type of change up. However, there are a lot of variables that I don't know: amount of pronation, finger length and width, wrist flexibility, and feel or feedback he has for the pitch coming out of his hand. Also, if he transitions to more sinkers and fewer four-seams, then a change up that generates a little more horizontal movement would tunnel better off that pitch.
There are reasons different pitchers find success with different grips and wrist stiffness.
Why is his fastball IVB so low? Do you think it’s low spin, low efficiency, ~1:15 (or lower) spin axis, or a combination of those things?
It’s a slot thing alongside natural hand position. He’s just not behind the ball at release, and that probably helps him in creating his slider shape.
Tough to carry a ball from a low slot. Not everybody can be Bryan Woo haha
Top 10
I just need to know if I should start him in his first start in my fantasy playoff matchup? I want the K’s, someone talk some sense into me so I don’t do something stupid!
i just picked him up lets ride
- dark forest wizards manager
I'm curious, why is this called a slider? Kumar and everyone in the Ranger's organization has called it a curve and it at least to me looks like it has a lot more 12-6 movement than most other sliders, is there some sabermetric aspect of the spin or something that makes it a slider? Obviously I know that they have to call it something it's just interesting to me that it seems like everyone outside of the actual teams and players calls this a curve but others call it a slider
I talk about this at the 3m mark of the vid
I think we get way too caught up in what pitchers call pitches but I understand that’s what classification is based off
We have public measurements on how the ball moves and can classify based off that
The actual movement of Rocker’s ball, regardless of the visual or how he throws it, etc, is more slider than curveball. The pitch is a) hard and b) doesn’t have beyond -5” induced vertical break, which is generally where we push into more curveball territory
He’s holding a curveball grip and likely cueing that but however his arm unravels or hand moves, it doesn’t allow him to have a ton of loopy depth on the pitch like a standard curve
@@LanceBroz Ah gotcha! Thanks for the response, must've just missed that in your video.
Mets punching the wall
2:21 Is it even humanly possible to throw a curveball with a spin axis like that (basically an upside down four seamer)? I've never seen a curveball look like that.
It was an exaggeration! There are basically never any curveballs with 100% efficiency and a 6:00 spin direction. Most are slightly offset
Yeah he's going to annihilate this abysmal Seattle offense.
Fatima Trace
It’s a curveball.. he just throws it harder than most people