Over at FanGraphs, Ben Clemens furthered our collective knowledge on why sinkers are bad. In short, Clemens deduced that the advantages of sinkers put to play are less than we thought, while they incur more damage than four-seamers when put in the air, and also lead to fewer whiffs. The pitch also does not tunnel with other offerings as well as the four-seamer.
Corey Kluber, a sinkerballer, has seen his HR/9 tick up in the years since the ball has been juiced, and hitters have begun capitalizing. Kluber’s peripherals, outside of the small sample size before a freak injury this season, have still remained stable despite this.