Petriello: Return of the curveball could give rise to these hurlers
From Mike Petriello at MLB.com on November 11, 2016:
“The curveball is coming back,” declared outfielder Chris Coghlan, then with the A’s, in a locker room chat three weeks into the 2016 season. At the time, it was difficult to see much in the data that reflected truth to that opinion, but when a former Rookie of the Year Award winner coming off two consecutive above-average seasons tells you he sees something on the field, you remember it.
Seven months later, it’s clear Coghlan knew what he was talking about. We saw thousands more curveballs in 2016, particularly in the playoffs, and especially to attack the Cubs. Of those curveballs, a huge amount contained much higher spin, which we’ve now been able to measure with Statcast™ for two seasons.
So what’s going on? Why the change? And can we use these trends to identify the pitchers who might be worth experimenting with as the next Hill?
Read the full article here: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/208581072/rich-hill-leads-return-of-curveball-pitchers/
Originally published: November 11, 2016. Last Updated: November 11, 2016.