Estrada’s changeup came in 11 ticks slower than his fastball, which is decent seperation. Like his fastball, his changeup is an extreme flyball pitch at 69.2% FB%. The pitch had a 17% SwStr%, but just a 14.7% K%.
Estrada’s curveball suffered from being too hittable as the pitch found the zone 71.4% of the time and batters crushed the pitch, putting up an .817 wOBA.
Estrada’s fastball creeped in at a career-(s)low 88 mph. The pitch was an extreme flyball pitch allowing 58.6% FB%. While the pitch allowed a .176 batting average, 66% of the hits allowed were taters, which led to a .353 ISO.
Estrada threw his cutter sparingly and the pitch got BABIP’d to death. The cutter allowed a 60% GB%, but a .600 BABIP.
Estrada is the rare case of a pitcher who throws his heat in only the high-80s, and this hurts him in a league where starters are throwing near 100 mph. His fastball conceded a wRC+ of 158 making every hitter who faced it look like Mike Trout.
The secondary weapon in Estrada’s arsenal is his change which is thrown over a third of the time. It used to be a lethal strikeout pitch, but as his K% dipped over the past few years his changeup has put up a negative pVal.
Estrada throws his curve just about 8% of the time and exclusively in pitcher’s counts. Hitters have been able to lay off it though, as they only register a measly 2.0 SwStr% against the pitch.
The least utilized pitch in Estrada’s arsenal is his cutter, which he throws in the mid-80s after losing a few ticks on the radar over the years. However, this loss of speed hasn’t really made what was already a bad pitch much worse. In 7 major league seasons, only once has it registered a positive pVal.
