Pitching strategy in baseball has been changing rapidly over the past several years. The game continues to shift towards power pitchers who are missing bats at record rates. Pitching coaches are preaching four-seam fastballs up in the strike zone and breaking ball usage has increased league-wide as the game’s hurlers try to counteract the so-called “launch angle revolution.” Throwing to contact while attempting to induce ground balls and weak contact has become the pitching blueprint of a bygone era.
But don’t bother telling MLB’s surprise ERA leader that the sinkerballer is a dying breed.
Sinker usage around the game has dropped to an all-time low during the 2019 according to a study by Baseball Prospectus.