As we know, there are more and more strikeouts in today’s baseball games. A couple of weeks ago, I watched a baseball game and a pitcher’s arsenal was shown on the screen. It clearly indicated that he threw a lot of strikeouts via his four-seam fastballs. That makes me think of one thing. What are the best strikeout pitches?
Trevor Rogers already throws 57 strikeouts in 8 starts and 70% of these punchouts are coming via his four-seamer. Brandon Woodruff throws a four-seamer with an average velocity of 96.6 mph. It’s really hard for an MLB hitter to bat against this pitch. Woodruff has 65 strikeouts in 9 games, 39 punchouts coming via his four-seamer. Tyler Glasnow throws a four-seam fastball even harder and the average velocity of his four-seamer is 97.1 mph. Glasnow already has 85 strikeouts and 37 are coming via his four-seamer. Moreover, Shane Bieber throws 92 strikeouts so far, leading the majors. 32 punchouts are coming via his four-seamer.
Kershaw’s four-seamer velocity has dropped and in this season, the average velocity of his four-seamer is only 90.8 mph. But, it’s not a big problem for the three-time Cy Young winner. Kershaw effectively uses his slider and he throws 45 strikeouts via his slider. We might be really impressed by Ynoa’s bat since he already has 2 homers so far. But, don’t ignore Ynoa’s slider. He already throws 35 strikeouts via his slider. Moreover, Musgrove throws 31 strikeouts via his slider and Peralta has 30 punchouts via slider. Alex Wood’s slider usage has increased from 28.7% to 34.2% and it works. He has 29 strikeouts by throwing a slider thus far.
Lucas Giolito relies on his changeup and he uses it 36.1% of the time. Giolito throws 50 strikeouts so far and 29 are coming via his changeup. John Means also relies on his changeup. He tossed a no-hitter against the Mariners on May 5. In that game, Means threw 12 strikeouts and 6 strikeouts were via changeup. Well, Luis Castillo already takes 6 losses so far, but his changeup still works. 23 of his 40 strikeouts are coming via changeup. Additionally, Pablo Lopez uses his changeup 35.6% of the time. Pablo Lopez throws 46 strikeouts so far and half of them are coming via changeup.
Tyler Glasnow’s curveball also fools a lot of batters and he throws 39 strikeouts via his curveball. Additionally, Jose Berrios, Julio Urias, Charlie Morton and Madison Bumgarner each throw at least 20 strikeouts via curveball.
Moreover, there are several pitches that can generate strikeouts. Corbin Burnes already throws 58 strikeouts, while issuing only a walk. 32 of those strikeouts are coming via his devastating cutter. Sinker is known for inducing ground balls, but some pitchers can throw strikeouts via their sinkers. 25 of Zach Eflin’s 51 strikeouts come via his sinker. Steven Matz doesn’t throw many strikeouts, but he has 24 strikeouts via sinker. In the meantime, splitter can also fool hitters. Kevin Gausman throws 59 strikeouts so far this season and 39 of them are coming via Gausman’s great splitter. Shohei Ohtani has his splitter back. Last season, Ohtani only threw two strikeouts via splitter. By far in the 2021 season, Ohtani already throws 28 punchouts via his split-finger. Furthermore, don’t forget Shane Bieber’s knuckle curve, 37 of Bieber’s strikeouts come via his nasty knuckle curve.
We’ve seen pitchers throw a lot of nasty pitches and there are more and more strikeouts in today’s games. Shane Bieber’s four-seamer and knuckle curve truly fool MLB hitters. Glasnow effectively uses his fastball and curveball to punch out batters. In addition, Kershaw’s slider and Giolito’s changeup are also great strikeout pitches.
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