Oberg’s changeup came in six ticks slower than his fastball and was very hittable, allowing a 100% Z-Contact rate. The pitch allowed four singles, giving it a .500 BABIP.
Oberg’s fastball came in a tick and a half slower than in 2018, but the results were very good. The K% on the pitch hit a career-high 29% and the pitch allowed a career-low .198 BAA.
Oberg’s fastball hit the zone a career-best 35.7% of the time, and while the K% dropped due to a drop in O-Swing% and SwStr%, the pitch still performed well. Most importantly, the pitch’s HR/FB rate dropped to 5.3% and allowed a 31 wRC+.
Oberg increased his four-seam usage at the expense of his two-seamer. It generated more swings outside the zone and saw significant decrease in batting average against. Oberg may have benefitted from locating this pitch better than in previous seasons.
Oberg’s primary breaking pitch is the slider that has more of a sweeping movement away from right handed batters. It is Oberg’s primary putaway pitch. The increased vertical break helped generate more ground balls and a career best wRC+ of 43 in 2018.
The changeup was thrown in the zone more in 2018 which decreased both the number of chases and swings and misses. The increased zone rate may have contributed to a lower ground-ball rate and worse results. Since the results are relatively close to league-average, Oberg can continue to utilize this pitch under 10% of the time.
Oberg decreased his usage of the two-seam fastball mostly due to poor results, evidenced by a .385 batting average and a 173 wRC+ against. The main objective of this pitch is to get ground balls, so Oberg can eliminate this pitch if he an increase his ground-ball rate on his changeup.
