In yesterday’s post about James Paxton’s spin rate improvements, I said that while he’s been pretty good, “he just hasn’t gone nova the way [Gerrit] Cole has,” and that he may need to learn to utilize his fastball differently as its shape and movement change. Hours later, he went out and did exactly that, and the results were extraordinary.
Gerrit Cole’s fastball not only started spinning more when he joined the Astros, but he started throwing it higher. His average fastball elevation with the Pirates was dead on the middle of the strikezone; he clearly liked to throw some low fastballs that were so beloved of his old pitching coach, Ray Searage.