In a seven-start stretch from May 17th to June 20th, Gerrit Cole threw either a four-seam fastball or a slider 82.6 percent of the time. At the time, I looked into whether that might be a sustainable strategy for him. The two pitches, after all, are easily his best. Yet, he’s only utilized the combo at an 80 percent clip once — albeit in an 11-strikeout masterpiece against the Rockies — in six starts since then. Why the shift?
Well, the cutter has benefitted the most from the drop in fastball/slider usage. The cut-fastball comprised a mere one percent of Cole’s pitches through his first 15 games this season; in fact, he didn’t throw it at all in 10 of those starts including a stretch of six starts in a row.