The most-used pitch in Triggs’ repertoire in 2018 was his two-seam fastball, yet it wasn’t very effective for him, giving up a slash line of .308/.407/.500. The culprit seems to be an elevated 28.6% HR/FB rate that contributed to 10 HRs allowed by the pitch. It does feature quality sinking movement and generated an impressive 56.7% ground-ball rate.
Triggs threw his curveball roughly 23% of the time in 2018, and it was his best pitch in terms of pVal with a 1.9 mark. It missed plenty of bats with a 15.8% swinging-strike rate and also generated a lot of weak fly-ball contact as evidenced by a 61.5% fly-ball rate that led to an impressive .139 batting average against and .278 slugging percentage against.
The slider was critical to Triggs’ repertoire in 2018 despite being worth a -0.7 pVal. He threw it in the zone 54.3% of the time, and yet the pitch had just a 68.8% contact rate against, supported by a 13.3% swinging-strike rate. An elevated 28.6% HR/FB rate for the pitch led to a .483 slugging percentage against on a pitch that opposing batters hit just .207 against. Better fly-ball luck in 2019 could turn this pitch into a positive value for Triggs.
The changeup was used infrequently by Triggs in 2018 with just 54 thrown, and while it failed to miss many bats as evidenced by just a 3.7% swinging-strike rate, it actually was worth a 0.9 pVal.A low zone rate of 27.8% helped contribute to a lot of poor contact against the pitch, and the result was a 45.5% ground-ball rate and just a .083 batting average against.
Triggs threw just 36 four-seam fastballs in 2018, and they came in at a below-average 89.1 mph average velocity. Despite the lower velocity of the pitch, it performed well, giving up just a 79% contact rate, and because of a .000 BABIP, opposing hitters failed to post a hit against the pitch. The result was a 0.2 pVal for the pitch this past season.
