Francisco Rodriguez doesn’t have his fastball anymore.
Long gone are the days when the right-hander would blow his upper-90 m.p.h. fastball past hitters and leave them befuddled at the plate against his slider.
But the new Detroit Tigers closer – acquired on Wednesday in a trade with the Brewers – has a different out pitch these days: His change-up.
According to research from ESPN Stats & Info’s Mark Simon, opponents went 11-for-112 in at-bats ending with a change-up (.098 batting average) this past season. Simon found they missed on 40% of their swings and hit the ball hard in only 5% of their at-bats.