Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
When the Astros acquired Gerrit Cole, they took away his two-seamer and turned him into a four-seam monster. Their metrics showed the two-seamer just wasn’t a good enough pitch for Cole and that he had the velocity and spin to live off his four-seamer.
Cole listened and he watched. The Astros sat him down in front of video that backed up the data. He stopped throwing the two-seam fastball, and all he did was become one of the best pitchers in baseball. He soon will be the highest paid pitcher in baseball because of the change.