The changeup was Wilson’s weapon to induce ground balls. He used the pitch just 13.5% of the time, but 57.1% of contact on his changeup resulted in a ground ball. Control of the pitch can be called into question with an even 24 balls and 24 strikes. He limited the damage on the pitch to a .125 BAA with a lone hit, but that hit was a home run.
Wilson only threw eight curveballs in 2019 with a minimum velocity of 76.3 mph and a maximum velocity of 78.8 mph. It surrendered no contact, no whiffs, and had 50% strikes and 50% balls. There isn’t much to say about the pitch, given the small sample, but the pitch is similar to Wilson’s slider and often leads to some classification confusion.
At 71.9% usage, Wilson’s fastball was slashed to a .320/.370/.540 line. Wilson averaged 94.8 mph on his fastball and dialed it up as high as 97.5 mph. Despite the velocity, hitters only whiffed 8.9% of the time, but Wilson grabbed 13 of his 16 strikeouts with the pitch. He threw it in the zone 53.2% of the time and allowed an 81.9% Z-Contact rate, with batters happy to take the pitch, swinging on the pitch in the zone only 65.9%. Unfortunately for Wilson, hitters were also content to take the pitch when it was outside of the zone, with the fastball drawing less than a 25% chase rate.
With just 44 thrown (12.4% usage), Wilson’s slider averaged 83.9 mph. Hitters smacked it hard to a .353/.389/.824 triple slash with two singles, two doubles, and two home runs. The pitch had a 56.8% swing rate and a 92% contact rate. He threw 35 for strikes, but with hitters swinging that often, they missed just 4.6% of the time.
Wilson’s four-seamer lacked vertical movement but had good arm-side run and topped out at 97 mph. It had an excellent 13.5% whiff rate and limited hitters to just a 74.5% contact rate.
Only thrown a handful of times, Wilson’s slider was a good putaway pitch, eliciting chases out of the zone 42.9% of the time. It had good drop to it, though when hitters made contact they punished it to the tune of a .571 slugging percentage.
Wilson’s changeup looked good in an extremely small sample size of just 16 pitches thrown. It had hitters flailing at it 46.7% of the time, contributing to a 25% whiff rate against it.
