Weekend Rumblings - News for September 18, 2021
Emma Baccellieri writes how Salvador Perez is bucking the trend for older catchers.
One last factor is his success with breaking balls. That’s not been a traditional strength for Perez—if anything, it’s been something of a weakness, particularly early in his career—but he’s changed that this season. He’s actually now more likely to get a hit on a breaking ball than on a fastball. (Pitchers seem to have noticed this and made an adjustment: While sliders and curves made up 40% of what they threw to Perez in 2020, that’s down to 35% in 2021.