Last week, I talked a bit about David Robertson reverting back to his curveball in September. It wasn’t a huge jump, but at a 22% selection on his breaking pitch, it was a big improvement over his 84% cutter rate in August.
What I left out of my last article was how effective his curveball looked in September. It’s a huge reason he became a top reliever over the past few years, and he threw it with a 21% whiff rate in that final month of the season. Couple that with an absolute inability for hitters to make contact with the it, a 5.8% in play rate, and you get an extremely dominant pitch. But I don’t remember it ever looking like it did on Monday night against the Orioles.
That’s one of the best curveballs I’ve ever seen. Not only is the vertical sink at nearly 12 inches (the league average is 5.3), but the pitch remains at a strong 80 mph with good movement away from Reynolds. That last second drop is the real kicker, and it’s why he threw the curveball 9 times out of his 13 pitches Monday night. We keep talking about hitters in a slump over the last two days, but if anyone’s hot it’s David Robertson. This whiff isn’t Mark Reynolds being Mark Reynolds, it’s David Robertson brutalizing the poor man.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
TIQ IQ
Recent Comments