Anthony Bass

Sitting at a stout 95.3 mph, Bass needs that 82nd-percentile velocity (vis-à-vis his Statcast profile) to make up for a poor 9th-percentile spin rate on his heater.

The journeyman reliever isn’t an especially flashy bullpen option, but his slider sneakily approached Money Pitch prestige during the 2019 season. Bass got batters fishing at a 43.7% chase rate, picked up an 18.6% swinging-strike rate, and found the zone 39.8% of the time.

Averaging 93.9 mph in 2018, Bass’ four-seam fastball was not an effective pitch for him. While generating ground balls at a 52.2% clip, the damage done when the pitch was hit in the air was immense as the pitch produced a 25% HR/FB rate which resulted in a .519 slugging percentage against. All told, it was worth a -1.3 pVal.

The two-seam fastball was used as a secondary out pitch as evidenced by a 21.2% strikeout rate. Interestingly, it didn’t generate a lot of whiffs as opposing batters managed an 86.4% contact rate against the pitch. The result was a .357/.357/.429 slash line against the pitch and a -0.4 pVal.

The slider was thrown about 28.69% of the time in 2018 by Bass, and it was his most-effective offering according to pVal with a 2.0 mark. A 12.9% swinging-strike rate coupled with a 50% ground-ball rate helped him limit opposing batters to a .125/.176/.188 slash line with the pitch.

Bass only threw seven splitters in 2018. The sample size is very small, but it elicited a 14.3% swinging-strike rate and limited opposing batters hitless. The result was a 0.3 pVal.