Chris Sale in Crisis: Rookie Andrew Abbott's Emergence Sparks Pitching Revolution
Though five starts, Sale has allowed 17 runs (16 earned) on 31 hits in 23.1 innings while striking out 32 and walking seven. The strikeout rate is solid, and his overall velocity remains the same, but a 6.17 ERA and 1.63 WHIP are alarmingly high for the veteran. So what could be the root of the problem? Thanks to Alex Chamberlain’s Pitch Leaderboard, I spotted something that could explain a bit of these issues.
As you can see from the chart above, Sale has dropped his arm angle by four degrees. The scale above uses zero degrees to signify a pitcher who releases from a pure side-arm angle, perfectly parallel to the ground. The fact that Sale has fallen from 11 degrees to seven degrees is a pretty stark difference when you’re already that close to side-arm. It could be just a comfort issue for Sale, who might feel better pitching from a lower arm slot; however, pitchers can sometimes lower their arm slot to compensate for fatigue or pain in their normal delivery. We have no evidence that this is the case for Sale, but given his injury history, it’s hard to prevent the thought from popping into your head.
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