Chris Sale in Crisis: Rookie Andrew Abbott's Emergence Sparks Pitching Revolution
The first change was that he appeared to add a cutter this off-season. As a lefty whose four-seam fastball had a below-average swinging strike rate and league-average ICR against right-handers last year, that makes some sense. However, so far, he’s only thrown five of them, and the vast majority have been down and in to righties. I’m not sure that’s what he wants to do, and the pitch doesn’t seem to have lots of break in on the hands, so we’ve seen a new pitch, but I’m not sure it’s anything that actually moves the needle. Abbott also has a new cutter, which he’s thrown 5 times, all in the first or second pitch of an at-bat to righties. Usage is still pretty low (~5%). He’s also hammering down-and-away from righties, as opposed to elevating away like he did last season (see below).
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