Chris Sale in Crisis: Rookie Andrew Abbott's Emergence Sparks Pitching Revolution
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The more immediate issue is what the lower arm slot has done to the movement profile on Sale’s pitches. Through five starts, Sale has the lowest grades he’s ever gotten on pitch models. His slider has lost almost an inch of horizontal movement and 2.5 inches of drop, while his four-seamer has lost a little bit of Induced Vertical Break (iVB). However, the bigger issue has been his fastball locations.
Sale has a relatively flat fastball with a 1.2 Height Adjusted Vertical Approach Angle. That means, the vertical approach angle, after controlling for the release point of the pitch, fights the drop of gravity more than the average fastball. Those types of fastballs work better at the top of the strike zone since they appear to “rise” rather than drop as they approach the plate. Last season, Sale threw his four-seam fastball up in the zone 59% of the time overall and 62% of the time to righties. This season, he has thrown it up in the zone just 51% of the time overall and 53% of the time to righties. While that may not seem like a major issue, failing to get the fastball up in the zone has led to him also throwing 9.3% of his fastballs middle-middle, which is worse than the league average and up for Sale from last year.
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