The best way to keep the opposing offense off the board is to keep them from putting the ball into play. Once it is, there are so many factors outside of the pitcher’s control, it feels like more can go wrong than right.
Of all pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched last year in the Pirates system, only four had a swinging strike rate of at least 13%, and a ground ball rate over 50% — Anthony Solometo, Quinn Priester, Ricky DeVito, Noe Toribio.
After a rough start in Triple-A Indianapolis, he was sent back to Altoona, where he saw the strike outs started to come back.