Deciphering Josh Hader’s Unconventional Fastball: Uniqueness and Unclassifiability Explored | Sports

Angles. Watch Josh Hader, and sharp, exact angles come to thoughts. He tucks his entrance knee again into a particularly curled up place, and then unleashes a bunch of untamed angles on the hitter — hair, elbows, wrists and then legs with a closing whirl and kick — to provide a fastball that explodes onto hitters. Maybe it’s no shock, then, that the second-most valuable sinker within the huge leagues over the previous eight years advantages from all types of results finest described by geometry and physics.

Wait, sinker? This pitch, with top-10 experience amongst all fastballs within the huge leagues, this pitch is a sinker?

“I think of it as a fastball,” the lefty mentioned, laughing.

“I think of it as a riding fastball,” mentioned his pitching coach, Josh Miller.

“To be honest, last year with L.A., one of our pitching coaches told me it was a two-seam and I had no idea. I was like, ‘Oh, I thought he only threw a four?'” new teammate Jason Heyward mentioned. “But then, looking at it more of late, just seeing the angle he throws it on, I can see why you’d call it a two-seam. But I had no idea it was a two-seam. I thought it was always a four that had the elevation.”

If it strikes like a four-seamer, why is it a sinker? Because he grips it like a sinker. Here’s a video from Lance Brozdowski the place you'll be able to see that Hader clearly has his fingers alongside the seams, not throughout such as you would on a four-seamer.

So Hader throws it a method (with a sinker grip) however the pitch strikes one other method (like a real four-seamer). How is that doable? The intricacies of the spin might need one thing to do with it. Many true sinker throwers use seam-shifted wake to create downward and arm-side motion on their pitch. Clay Holmes is one such pitcher. He throws righty, however he spins the ball about the identical quantity as Hader does, the speed is analogous, and even the axis round which the ball is spinning is analogous. But Holmes will get a whopping 15 inches extra sink on his sinker.

The purpose is likely to be that, in the event you take a look at the best way Holmes’ sinker is spinning, you'll be able to see that the seams are gathering on the left facet of the ball. A steady seam alongside one facet of the ball creates the wake in “seam-shifted wake.” That wake drags the ball towards Holmes’ arm facet and kills the “ride” impact on the pitch, giving him a super-dropping sinker. As Trevor May identified on the Rates & Barrels podcast this 12 months, Hader’s ball spins with no seams gathering on both facet. That “wobble” within the spin means he has nearly no seam-shifted wake impact and no discount within the experience that normally defines a four-seamer.

Creating a break up between the best way the ball is gripped and the best way it spins is a method he’s misleading, however there’s extra, and it has to do together with his arm angle.

Hader and Drew Smyly have the identical spin axis on their sinkers however very completely different arm slots. Only 12 certified lefties have a better arm angle than Smyly, and solely 21 certified lefties have a decrease arm angle than Hader, which we are able to see because of BaseballSavant’s new arm angle leaderboards. These two pitchers have the identical spin axis, however take a look at how completely different the arm angles are.

Given that decrease arm slot, batters count on a sure sort of motion. The motion you’d see from a sidearmer, particularly one throwing a sinker — balls which have plenty of drop and fade. Instead, you get a ball with great experience. This incongruity between what is anticipated from the arm slot and what truly arrives on the plate is necessary for the pitcher, and the Astros have benefited from this earlier than.

“I would say it’s akin to the Cristian Javier fastball enigma from a couple years ago,” Miller mentioned. “Guys aren’t used to seeing it. They’re not used to seeing the low slot with the vertical component with velo. Hitters aren’t used to it.”

Here’s a graph from Max Bay’s model, which reveals anticipated motion from the pitcher’s arm slot (within the concentric blue circles, with the middle being most typical) and precise motion from the pitcher (within the orange circle, representing the vast majority of his pitches) for Javier. Batters count on that darkish blue as a result of that’s what they usually get from that arm angle, and as an alternative they get the orange from Javier, which “jumps” at them and creates all types of issues.

It doesn’t matter what you name Hader’s pitch at this level. Call it a four-seamer, and Hader will get nearly 5 inches extra experience than you’d count on given his arm angle, which might be probably the most in baseball amongst four-seamers. Javier would be second on that list.

How does the lefty obtain this misleading experience from his low slot?

“I try to stay on top of the ball, so that changes my hand position, and that cue helps me get the ride on the fastball,” Hader mentioned in 2019.

It’s that hand place that enables him to get the identical spin axis as Smyly from such a distinct slot, however bigger cues are additionally necessary to the pitcher.

“As long as I’m not going sideways. With my motion, earlier in my career, I tended to go west to east instead of going north-south,” he mentioned this 12 months. “That would be the biggest thing.”

Also the place he throws the ball issues a bit.

“When he’s throwing it to the top half of the zone, it’s really good,” Miller mentioned. “He’s got a unique delivery that I don’t think we would teach, but it works for him. We just have to nudge it to the top part of the zone as much as we can and let it play.”

By conserving his vitality according to the plate, emphasizing staying on high of the ball together with his hand and throwing excessive within the zone, Hader manages to throw an awesome driving fastball from a sidearm slot. Put all of it collectively, and it’s actually intimidating. It has the very best whiff fee amongst all sinkers (minimal 150 whiffs) over the past 4 years, by a whopping 5 percentage points over second place. Even in the event you add four-seamers again in, solely Mason Miller and Jhoan Duran have larger whiff charges on their heaters over that time-frame. The .184 batting common in opposition to his sinker is the perfect within the sport over that time-frame (minimal 1,000 thrown), simply forward of Tarik Skubal. It’s an awesome pitch.

Here’s what it appears to be like like from the batter’s viewpoint, because of video from Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs, with graphics overlayed to spotlight the distinctive qualities of Hader’s fastball.

Why does Hader suppose the pitch works so properly for him?

“The deception of my windup, they’re not picking that ball up until later,” he mentioned. “I think it’s deception more than the actual pitch. Obviously, it’s a unicorn pitch, but I don’t think the pitch is the all-in-one special. I think it’s the deception that helps make that fastball play a little bit better.”

And he’s proper. It’s all in regards to the misleading angles he creates — the arm, the hand and the spin.

(Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photo: Joe Robbins / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images)
(Graphics by Drew Jordan)