Chris Sale lost his fastball. Now the Red Sox could lose the AL East.



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The Boston Red Sox were supposed to face the New York Yankees for the title of the American League of the East. Instead, they are 6-10 and limping in a series against the Yankees from Tuesday night. Chris Ace, the ace of the team, is at the heart of the matter and if he does not improve quickly, the Red Sox will play catch-up all season.

Sale is 0-3 with a time of 9.00, his 13 earned points in 2019, more than a third of 37 points that he has allocated more than 27 starts last year. He eliminated 13% of the hitter at the lowest point in his career and achieved close to 7%, his highest rate since 2012 as a member of the Chicago White Sox. His swinging percussion percentage (10.5%) is also at its lowest level since 2012, and the batters make better contact with him than in the past four years, hitting the ball at the stick's sweet spot once on 12 balls. bring into play.

The most worrying statistic for Sale and the Red Sox is its fast four-sided ball speed, which has gone from an average of 95.6 mph in 2018 to 91.5 mph this season, the most noticeable dip occurring after an injury to the shoulder late last season. . The injury could be a persistent problem, but that did not stop the team from registering the 30-year-old man to a $ 145 million contract extension for five years this winter.

Anyway, the effectiveness of Sale's fastball is not up to what it needs to be at the moment. The Batters are not playing so fast on his fastball because Sale has not thrown it so often in the area – a 53% drop to 41% in just one season. The strike rate oscillating on this ground is also derisory, ie 1.3%.

Chris Sale Red Sox Fastball Chart
This graph shows Chris Sale's fastball and landing rate in the end zone, as well as his percentage of shots hit on his fastball. -The Washington Post

"We know everything was not there," Cora told Steve Hewitt of the Boston Herald. "I think the pitch is the one with which it does not fit. Everyone is talking about the fastball, but for me it's the slider. It's the best slider in the game, and for now it's not that. "

Sale's slider, used against both right-handed and left-handed drummers, was an impressive pitch. From 2017 to 2018, the batters only reached .181 against the field with 141 strikeouts over 276 at batting. This year, the batters hit .217 with four strikeouts in 23 shots at bat, which is a good idea. And his decline is far from being that of his fastball. For example, his slider saved the team on two out of 100 points thrown in 2018, which allowed the balance to reach equilibrium in 2019. However, his fastball saved the team from close to one point every 100 launched last year. costing the Red Sox six points out of 100 launched in 2019 – the lowest rate among novice pitchers.

The rest of the starting rotation also does not seem to be able to take over. He has a combined total of 6.17 FIP – the EER of a team over a given period of time if the thrower had average league average results and average league timing – the second worst score only for Baltimore Orioles (6.41 FIP) largely in This is partly to allow 28 more points to score than expected, given the number of outs and men in base on each plate, the most in more majors and eight more than in the worst rotation, the Chicago White Sox.

The bottom line is that Sale is the AL's most valuable pitcher this year (5.8 more wins than the replacement) and the second most valuable pitcher of the majors after Jacob's Ace of the New York Mets . These forecasts have since been revised to 4.3 fWAR in 2019. A win may seem minimal, but consider how tight the race is in the east of the LA. New York has a 57% chance of winning the division with 95 wins, the Tampa Bay Rays have the next best chance with 25% (91 wins) followed by Boston (18%, 89 wins). The Red Sox now have just over 50% of the chances of qualifying for the playoffs, by FanGraphs. They had a 90% chance to play in the playoffs early in the season.

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