Zach Davies

Despite returning a negative pVAL in 2018, Davies more than doubled down on his changeup last season, upping its usage to a career-high 31%. Registering a respectable 15.9% swinging-strike rate, the changeup was far and away Davies’ best (and nearly only) option for generating whiffs: No other pitch in his arsenal even neared double-digits.

Ineffectiveness caused Davies to drastically drop his curveball usage last season. He threw it fewer than 100 times with disastrous results: a 2.1% SwStr%, a .400 BAA, and a .465 wOBA against.

Davies’ cut fastball has been a nice complement to his sinker; it hasn’t been terribly consistent, and some batted ball luck favored him last season, but he uses it sparingly enough to a decent effect.

Davies throws a slider now and then as nothing more than a change of pace pitch, a few ticks faster than his curveball with a bit more lateral movement. There’s not much to see here.

Davies’s main offering found the strike zone at an above-average rate and limited damage allowing a respectable .256/.327/.364 triple-slash. While not missing bats a ton, this volume pitch did manage a pVal of 4.7.

Davies’ curveball is a modest offering, limiting opponents to a .224 batting average. However, the pitch misses bats at only a moderate rate and had a tendency to give up extra bases, allowing a .224 ISO.

Davies’s cutter peppered the strike zone, amassing a 42.5% zone rate. However, the pitch’s inability to miss bats and tendency to make mistakes (allowing an astronomical .313 ISO) held back its effectiveness.

This pitch was able to miss bats at an above-average clip and produced a robust and improved 29.3% K rate. A clear secondary pitch, the changeup proved a bit too hittable and resulted in a negative pVal.