You want my fastball(s)?

A few days ago, I was chatting with friends about some baseball video games. Suddenly, a friend came out with this line “You want my fastball?” This was from the classic MVP Baseball 2005, which can be named the best baseball video game. Fastball is the most common pitch in baseball. In this postseason, who heavily relies on fastballs?

Cristian Javier throws his four-seamer 80.9% of the time so far in the postseason and it’s been quite effective. Batters hit .174 against his four-seamer. He made it into the big league this July. During the regular season, Javier mainly relied on four-seamer (63%) and slider (25.5%), and he occasionally threw changeups and curves. Batters hit just .208 against his fastball in the 2020 season.  In the 2020 season, Chris Bassitt used sinker (38.2%), cutter (23%), four-seamer (16.5%), changeup (10.3%), curve (9.4%) and slider (2.6%). In the postseason, he made two starts and threw fastballs 78.8% of the time. Chicago White Sox batters hit only .200 against his fastballs in the Wild Card Series, however, the Astros collected 7 hits against his fastballs in 4 innings in the ALDS. Sixto Sanchez could be one of the best trades that Derek Jeter made. Sanchez’s changeup is devastating. During the regular season, batters only hit .148 against his changeup, which he used 26.7% of the time. Meanwhile, he also frequently used sinker (24%) and four-seamer (23.8%). Nevertheless, things changed in the postseason. Sixto Sanchez used his fastballs 77.0% of the time, particularly, he threw a lot of four-seamers (66.2%) and opponents batted .318 against his four-seamer this postseason while batting average against his four-seamer was only .217 during the regular season. Liam Hendriks throws a lot of four-seamers. In the regular season, he used four-seamer 70.8% of the time. In the playoffs, Hendriks also heavily relied on his four-seamer. He made three relief appearances in the postseason and threw 12 strikeouts in 5.2 innings. It’s surely hard to make quality contacts against his four-seamer. Hitters only batted .211 against Hendriks’ four-seamer and xwOBA was only .207. Is this season going to be Charlie Morton’s final season? Well, the 36-years-old veteran is still good on the mound. He threw four-seamers more often than he did last season. Last season, Morton used his four-seamer 29.8% of time and, this season he threw his four-seamer 35.5% of the time. Meanwhile, Morton also used sinkers and occasionally threw his cutter. In this postseason so far, Morton uses his fastballs almost 70% of the time. But different from the regular season, Morton throws sinker 31.9% of the time and uses cutter 17.6% of the time. His four-seamer usage drops to 20.3% so far this postseason. It’s October baseball. You have to throw your best pitches to help your team. But, your opponents have studied you a lot and have been well prepared. They are ready for your fastballs. However, a great pitcher knows how to effectively use fastballs and locate his fastballs well. A great pitcher surely can throw fastballs hard and throws fastballs that are hard to hit in the playoffs.