How Logan Webb’s three-fastball mix helped land SF Giants’ ace at second All-Star Game

SAN FRANCISCO Logan Webb has long joked that he s not a strikeout pitcher In the past the San Francisco Giants ace s reticence was warranted The numbers though are hard to deny Webb was selected to his second straight All-Star unit and is expected to pitch an inning Tuesday night in Atlanta after finishing the first half with a National League-leading innings and a ERA He s providing his usual volume but he s drastically increasing his strikeout rate as of now on pace to eclipse strikeouts in a single season for the first time in his career In a year where the league-wide strikeout rate has slightly dipped Webb ranks fourth in baseball Webb s strikeout spike isn t just the product of a tweaked changeup and a slight shift on the rubber but the right-hander s willingness to use three different fastballs One is his bread and butter One is performing better compared to previous seasons One is by bulk metrics an awful offering that he calls his MVP pitch Together they ve allowed Webb to further evolve in his seventh season in the majors In he was listening to a lot of his teammates tell him how good he was but a lot of times you have to have the success to start to believe that president of baseball operations Buster Posey explained of Webb s first full season in the majors He had success that year and it just continued to build and get better and better From the pitching standpoint he can pitch all four quadrants now There s not a lot of guys that can do that Now you add that he s got elite movement on his pitches it s a recipe for success Giants lefty Robbie Ray a fellow All-Star selection who won t pitch in the challenge disclosed It s really fun to watch He s definitely taken his competition to the next level The sinker has long been Webb s foundational fastball He throws the two-seamer more than any other pitch and it has been his bulk valuable offering over the last two seasons Webb gets six more inches of vertical drop on his sinker compared to similarly thrown pitches and the product is the eighth-highest groundball rate of baseball https sporty-clips mlb com eHk MEtfVjBZQUhRPT fVkFOVFVGUU Vd VBQ djRVVBQUhCVk FQUFBQ JsVUFVVkZVQndVSEExQlVVUU F mp If Webb s sinker and changeup are the stars of the show then Webb s four-seam fastball and cutter are the supporting actors Neither are prominent parts of his repertoire but each has a narrow and necessary role Webb threw a couple cutters in and abandoned the pitch in and then re-introduced it in The right-hander s cutter accounted for percent of his total pitches last year and he s upped his usage to percent What s odd about Webb s increased reliance on his cutter is that the pitch rates out very poorly This season opponents have a batting average and slugging percentage against Webb s cutter In his final start of the first half Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani sent a cutter from Webb into McCovey Cove Compared to similarly thrown cutters Webb is getting fewer inches of movement Despite the results Webb throws the pitch because it gives him something to throw that moves inside to left-handed hitters He refers to the cutter as his MVP pitch not as a boast but because it s literally designed for former MVPs such as Ohtani and Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman as well as left-handed hitters generally Of the cutters that Webb has thrown of them have been against left-handed hitters It s just a different look Webb announced If you were possibly going to look metric-wise it s ostensibly not the greatest pitch but it works because I throw a sinker One analogy I ve used in the past is if your pitches are stocks you really want to invest in the earners more mentioned pitching coach J P Martinez For Webby the cutter doesn t grade out very well but it moves towards the hitter and not away from the hitter https sporty-clips mlb com N lSMGpfVjBZQUhRPT fQVFZRFV RUFWRlFBRDFGUkJRQUhWVlFGQUFNSEFGZ FVQVFIQ ZCVUF SUFWbEJV mp For Martinez an emphasis on the cutter was an idea he got from a certain association down south On the cutter that s authentically something I stole from the Dodgers playbook Martinez announced All their sinker-slider guys they started adding cutters to keep lefties honest I watched it play out in real time against all our lefties whether Brandon Crawford or LaMonte Wade Jr or Brandon Belt I thought it was something we could pick up and use ourselves to neutralize left-handed hitters Rounding out Webb s three-fastball mix along with his sinker and cutter is the four-seam fastball a pitch that s become invaluable to his repertoire thanks to a slight tweak Webb threw his four-seamer percent of the time as a rookie in but the pitch got absolutely hammered Opposing hitters had a batting average with a slugging percentage against the four-seamer that year prompting Webb to gradually phase the pitch out of the mix By the four-seamer accounted for less than four percent of his pitches This season Webb is throwing his four-seamer percent of the time It s the least-utilized pitch in his mix but similar to his cutter Webb s four-seamer has a narrow focus strikeouts Webb will often throw elevated four-seamers if he gets into two-strike counts that contrast his diving sinker and changeup The product is the four-seam fastball accounting for percent of his strikeouts Of the four-seam fastballs that Webb has thrown this season have been in two-strike counts When he s in position whether it s - or - the analogy we use is having an offensive mindset to being a pitcher Martinez mentioned The analogy that works with Webb because he s a football guy he throws a football before the contest and he played quarterback is when you re in the red zone you don t run a triple reverse You just punch it in Now not only is he executing those pitches but he knows which pitches are the best play He knows when there s guys that have significantly high four-seam whiff rates with two strikes he ll go there https sporty-clips mlb com MDRXNlpfWGw TUFRPT fVWdGUlhWTUNYd BQ FkUUFnQUhDQUlFQUZsUlYxY FVQWNBVlFzQlZBcFdWZ RR mp Webb s four-seam fastball is generating nearly two more inches of vertical movement compared to last year The pitch is also grading out far better this year compared to the first six seasons of his career Those improved metrics are a product of Webb changing how he throws the pitch The biggest thing I ve tried to preach is not raising his arm to try to throw it in championship for vertical movement Martinez disclosed It s genuinely throwing it from the exact same spot as other pitches no matter what the vert is because it just aids in the deception Martinez announced Related Articles Alhambra fireballer Cameron Millar highlights Bay Area selections in MLB draft Dodgers Shohei Ohtani to hit leadoff for NL in All-Star Event Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson batting ninth for AL MLB Draft Day Who are the SF Giants adding to their prospect pool What we learned during SF Giants action-packed first half SF Giants select shortstop Gavin Kilen with No overall pick of MLB draft With a three-fastball mix to complement his changeup and sweeper Webb has parlayed that deceptiveness into a second straight trip to the Midsummer Classic This millennium there have only been three Giants to total -plus innings and -plus strikeouts with sub-three ERA Jason Schmidt Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner By season s end Webb could very well join that list