In the final installment of this trilogy of Pirate first half best/worst oddities, we’ll be taking a look at the balls that left a Pirate pitcher’s hand at the highest spin rate.
You have entered the spin zone.
One of Statcast’s greatest gifts to us is spin rate. Sure, we can see a pitch spin and move without the aide of supercomputers, but now we can pinpoint down to a rotation per minute how much that sucker is turning over. It’s equal parts excessive and wonderful.
Usually when looking at spin, a pitcher's average RPM is used. I’ll give the team leader’s in those categories as well, but today, we’ll be looking at the individual pitches with the highest spin rate so far.
Four-Seam Fastball
Felipe Vazquez, June 28, 2,864 RPM
Team Average RPM Leader: Felipe Vazquez: 2,622 RPM (9th best in baseball)
Two-Seam Fastball/Sinker
Geoff Hartlieb, June 15, 2,584 RPM
Team Average RPM Leader: Geoff Hartlieb, 2,417 RPM (38th best in baseball)
Slider
Kyle Crick, June 15, 3,553 RPM
By the way, in the history of Statcast, only eight sliders had that high of a spin rate. Crick threw four of them.
Team Average RPM Leader: Kyle Crick, 3231 RPM (Best in baseball)
Curveball
Chris Stratton, May 15, 3,304 RPM
Team Average RPM Leader: Chris Stratton, 3,137 RPM (4th best in baseball)
Under U.S. Fair Use law, to use these videos, I have to provide commentary. Here is my commentary: Wow. That’s a lot of spin. And that’s good.