I’m a big Tanner Houck fan.
In his limited time up with the Sox this year, his sinker displayed some crazy vertical movement and his slider’s horizontal movement was among the top 20 in all of MLB.
He’s also a big seam-shifted wake guy.
And he might just be our last, best hope of keeping the Sox ‘17 draft from being a complete disaster.
But there’s another thing I noticed about him that came up during my obsessive scrutiny of all Rays-related pitcher acquisitions. (Hey, they’re a very smart front office. Sue me.):
Houck is also darn good at “spin mirroring” his pitches.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Take a look at the following video of two different pitches, rotating on the exact opposite axis from one another (apologies in advance, credit for the following clip was hard for me to track back -- Michael Augustine? Eno Sarris of The Athletic? Barton Smith of BaseballAero?):
It is very difficult for the naked eye to tell the difference between the two of them in slow motion. Now, imagine trying to do that with them coming at you at 95 miles per hour.
That’s the big-picture idea of “mirroring” pitches. If you can throw different ones from the same release point, at near the same velocity, and as close to 180 degrees difference between their spin axes, they are very difficult for a batter to track.
Here’s a Shane Bieber visual from last year that shows almost perfectly what I’m trying to say:
See how his 4-seamer and curveball are at almost the exact opposite sides of the “clock” from each other? Instead of a clock, think of it as a 360-degree protractor. The red and blue bars are almost exactly 180 degrees (opposite) from each other.
Anywho -- the Rays claimed former Pirates reliever Sean Poppen off of waivers a week or so ago. As I said, the Rays are very smart. What was up with that? Well, I have one idea. Look at this:
Again, just to provide some color around what we're seeing there -- Poppen's sinker and slider are spinning damn close to 180 degrees (opposite) from each other. Almost perfectly "mirroring" each other.
And now for the big reveal. Here’s Houck’s chart for his time in MLB so far in 2021:
If anyone is interested in digging into the topic a bit more, here's a link dump with plenty of additional background:
https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2019/09/mastering-the-axis-of-rotation-a-thorough-review-of-spin-axis-in-three-dimensions/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taking-a-look-at-spin-mirroring/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taking-a-look-at-spin-mirroring-part-2-misconceptions-and-practical-applications/
https://theathletic.com/2323195/2021/01/15/spin-mirroring-identifying-fantasy-baseball-sleepers/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taking-a-look-at-spin-mirroring/
https://theathletic.com/898914/2019/04/02/given-his-repertoire-john-gant-can-be-major-asset-in-cardinals-bullpen-cards-know-it/
https://theathletic.com/1133082/2019/08/13/sarris-what-makes-a-slider-good/
https://lancebroz.com/reporting/2019/6/20/trevor-bauer-changeup-cincinnati-reds
https://www.mlb.com/news/new-statcast-tool-measures-pitch-spin-direction
In his limited time up with the Sox this year, his sinker displayed some crazy vertical movement and his slider’s horizontal movement was among the top 20 in all of MLB.
He’s also a big seam-shifted wake guy.
And he might just be our last, best hope of keeping the Sox ‘17 draft from being a complete disaster.
But there’s another thing I noticed about him that came up during my obsessive scrutiny of all Rays-related pitcher acquisitions. (Hey, they’re a very smart front office. Sue me.):
Houck is also darn good at “spin mirroring” his pitches.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Take a look at the following video of two different pitches, rotating on the exact opposite axis from one another (apologies in advance, credit for the following clip was hard for me to track back -- Michael Augustine? Eno Sarris of The Athletic? Barton Smith of BaseballAero?):
It is very difficult for the naked eye to tell the difference between the two of them in slow motion. Now, imagine trying to do that with them coming at you at 95 miles per hour.
That’s the big-picture idea of “mirroring” pitches. If you can throw different ones from the same release point, at near the same velocity, and as close to 180 degrees difference between their spin axes, they are very difficult for a batter to track.
Here’s a Shane Bieber visual from last year that shows almost perfectly what I’m trying to say:
See how his 4-seamer and curveball are at almost the exact opposite sides of the “clock” from each other? Instead of a clock, think of it as a 360-degree protractor. The red and blue bars are almost exactly 180 degrees (opposite) from each other.
Anywho -- the Rays claimed former Pirates reliever Sean Poppen off of waivers a week or so ago. As I said, the Rays are very smart. What was up with that? Well, I have one idea. Look at this:
Again, just to provide some color around what we're seeing there -- Poppen's sinker and slider are spinning damn close to 180 degrees (opposite) from each other. Almost perfectly "mirroring" each other.
And now for the big reveal. Here’s Houck’s chart for his time in MLB so far in 2021:
If anyone is interested in digging into the topic a bit more, here's a link dump with plenty of additional background:
https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2019/09/mastering-the-axis-of-rotation-a-thorough-review-of-spin-axis-in-three-dimensions/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taking-a-look-at-spin-mirroring/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taking-a-look-at-spin-mirroring-part-2-misconceptions-and-practical-applications/
https://theathletic.com/2323195/2021/01/15/spin-mirroring-identifying-fantasy-baseball-sleepers/
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/taking-a-look-at-spin-mirroring/
https://theathletic.com/898914/2019/04/02/given-his-repertoire-john-gant-can-be-major-asset-in-cardinals-bullpen-cards-know-it/
https://theathletic.com/1133082/2019/08/13/sarris-what-makes-a-slider-good/
https://lancebroz.com/reporting/2019/6/20/trevor-bauer-changeup-cincinnati-reds
https://www.mlb.com/news/new-statcast-tool-measures-pitch-spin-direction
Attachments
-
30.2 KB Views: 2
Last edited: