Shane Bieber, Cleveland Indians
May Stats: 2-1 record, 32.3% strikeout rate, 3.8% walk rate, 3.66 ERA, 2.94 SIERA, and 0.7 fWAR in 39.1 innings
The Indians are struggling to keep up with the Twins, but Bieber is at least doing his part. As mentioned recently in these here pages, the right-hander has continued to rely less often on his fastball and utilize his secondary pitches with more frequency.
Shane Bieber, 15Ks in 23 Seconds. pic.twitter.com/DgazoOUSH5
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 19, 2019
Looks like it’s working.
Although his walk rate has increased from 2018 (4.7% to 6.1%), this is a good thing because it felt like he was in the strike zone too often. His first-pitch strike has decreased nearly five percentage points to 61.9%, but it’s still slightly above the league average. His percentage of pitches in the strike zone has gone down nearly 10 full percentage points, while his chase rate has gone from 30.9% to 34.8%.
He’s making some adjustments and reaping the rewards thus far.
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