Alex Young

Young’s changeup averages 84.6 mph and was relatively successful as a swing-and-miss pitch, inducing swings at 56% and had a 16.9 whiff% . Of his changeups, 22.6% were strikes and he grabbed 19 of his 71 strikeouts with his change. The pitch was hit to a .228 BAA and allowed three home runs (of his 14 total).

Of all his pitches, Young’s curveball had the lowest wOBA at .126. This was his strikeout pitch, nabbing 46.5% of his strikeouts (33) with his curveball. He throws it inside the strike zone just 29.9% of the time and had a 18.8 whiff% (on 44.7 Sw%), but the really impressive number is that he threw the pitch out of the zone 70.1% of the time and had a whopping 37.2 Sw% and 59.4 whiff%. That is, of the 172 curveballs outside the zone, 64 induced swings and 38 of those swings were misses, generating 26 strikeouts.

Statcast differentiates between a four-seam fastball and a sinker, but both are thrown at 89 mph. Young favors the sinker throwing it 22.2%, with the four-seam at 14.3%. Neither was his go-to strikeout pitch with only 11 of his 71 strikeouts coming on fastballs.

Young should lean on his curveball (which looks like a slider) more, as it was only used 20% of the time in 2019 and was truly an elite pitch. An 18.8% swinging-strike rate and a 62.9% ground ball rate helped make it as good as it was, as he was able to get a ton of swings outside of the zone on it.