Perhaps the idea at the heart of Rays pitching philosophy is that “unusual stuff plays.” The Rays have gone out of their way to acquire pitchers with a pitch or two far outside the norm (Pete Fairbanks’s slider speed/drop, Ryan Thompson’s arm angle, others), even if those pitchers had yet to have success. They’ve also developed young pitchers with unusual pitches (Colin Poche’s fastball rise).
But how does one define “unusual stuff,” and then how does one find it? It’s hard to conceptualize the trajectory of a pitch in three dimensions, and then understand it in the context of all the pitches across baseball, with multiple valid frames of reference.