Post by telson13 on Aug 31, 2019 10:34:47 GMT -5
Fangraphs post on Workman's incredible year:
Workman hasn’t become dominant with just one overpowering pitch, though. He’s done it with three overpowering pitches. While opposing hitters are producing a wOBA of .212 against his curveball, they have just a .177 wOBA against his four-seamer, and his cutter has generated an opponent’s wOBA of .242. Those results are indicative of truly unhittable pitches, but that doesn’t necessarily describe Workman’s harder stuff. His fastball velocity and spin are quite mediocre, with both ranking in the bottom 25% of baseball. But like he does with the curveball, Workman simply throws hard stuff where hitters can’t reach it.
I feel slightly vindicated, because this is exactly what I posted about back in April/early May. He’s getting the CB over often, but lower in the zone; he’s keeping the 4FB up to the point where it’s often out of the zone. But by working up-down and mixing in the CU away/tight (depending on batter handedness) and over or just off the edges, he’s simply giving guys nothing to hit. To a certain extent, that’s how Ottavino revived his career: chases. Workman’s command of all three pitches has been good to excellent, and he’s frequently executing pitcher’s pitches. I commented back then that I wasn’t too concerned about the walks, because of the low BA and the infrequent HR (a result of poor contact), and he managed to keep it up...even improve, especially I think by being unafraid to keep throwing the 4FB *just* out of the zone. Workman is a supreme example of how a well-executed pitching plan, combined with plus command (despite “poor” control) can turn a guy with relatively pedestrian stuff (below-avg FB velo and spin; solid-avg CU, arguably a plus CB) into a dominant pitcher. Obviously his continued success depends on maintaining that command. But he’s a terrific story on how to “make” a *pitcher*. That his walk rate has declined over the course of the year, and he’s still having great success despite the BABIP normalizing some (I think it was .150s back when I posted in the spring) is very encouraging for the future. What a fantastic success for him and the Sox’s coaching staff.