Drew Smyly

Smyly’s fourth pitch that he threw just 4.7% of the time and almost exclusively to RHB. It had a 42.6% zone rate but wasn’t great at coaxing swings out of the zone with just a 27.6% chase rate. Overall though it did show a respectable 13.6% swinging K rate (32.7% whiff).

Smyly was in the bottom 1% on spin-rate for his curveball and it shows dropping like a brick. The pitch was a tad unlucky in 2019 but did end up walking more than usual. The pitch has lost veloicty over the years but should still be an effective pitch going forward.

Smyly’s fastball sat at 91.2 mph this past season, up a little from 2018’s 90.8. It was hit pretty hard to the tune of a .399 xwOBA and accounted for 21 of Smyly’s 32 home runs surrendered this past season.

The cutter wasn’t a great pitch for Smyly this past year. That may be putting it nicely. It posted a meager 8.8% swinging K rate (21.3% whiffs) and allowed a .463 xwOBA. Overall a -9.5 pVAL. That’s not what you want.