Chris Sale in Crisis: Rookie Andrew Abbott's Emergence Sparks Pitching Revolution
Abbott can now use the four-seam, curve, and change to righties and eventually mix in the cutter more often, while going four-seam, curve, sweeper to lefties.
The other change I saw this season was that Abbott has added almost two inches of vertical break to his four-seam fastball while getting rid of some of the arm-side run. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that his arm angle seems to be raised almost four degrees. That has changed the shape of the pitch and gotten him a little more swing-and-miss, but the fastball velocity is also down to 91.2 mph after being 92.8 mph last year. I don’t love that. I also don’t love that he’s using the fastball low in the zone far more often than he did last year.
Post Comment