Travis Sawchik, an MLB reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, just recently published a book titled Big Data Baseball. It deals with how the Pittsburgh Pirates reinvented themselves in 2013 by using sabermetrics and unconventional ways — like discovering hidden talent — in order to find a way to end their winning drought.
One of the ways the Pirates got into the 2013 playoffs was by transforming starting pitcher Charlie Morton’s pitch arsenal. Clint Hurdle and Co. took away his four-seam fastball and replaced it with a two-seamer, also classified as a sinker.
Take a look at his pitch usage since 2008.
Morton’s four-seam usage started to take a dive in 2010, the year Hurdle was hired as manager. That’s also the year his two-seamer began to spike. But it wasn’t until 2013 (Morton only made nine appearances in 2012) that his sinker rate really expanded. And the reason behind this was simple: Hurdle, along with general manager Neil Huntington, wanted Pirates’ pitchers to force more ground balls. Pittsburgh was in the midst of enforcing a drastic change to how infielders were placed by shifting them in what was deemed at the time as unconventional. Their thought process was that if their pitchers forced more ground balls to a better aligned defense, success was sure to follow.
And as it did for the Pirates, it did for Morton as well.
In 2013, Morton posted a 3.26 ERA with a just as equally impressive 3.60 FIP. This was largely due to the fact that hitters rarely hit the ball in the air against him. His 62.9 GB% was not only the best rate of his career, but it was the highest rate in all of baseball (among starting pitchers with at least 110 IP). According to Big Data Baseball, hitters felt that Morton’s two-seamer felt heavier than his other pitches. No wonder his groundball rate was insane.
Morton followed up 2013 with another stellar season in 2014 for the playoff-bound Pirates. His GB% dropped a bit (55.7%), but it was still in the stratosphere as it ranked sixth in Major League Baseball.
It comes as no surprise that the right-handed hurler is back at it again this year. Over two starts, Morton is getting ground balls at an unprecedented rate (78.3%) and is allowing a base hit only 22% of the time when a batter puts the ball in play. He’s allowed just three earned runs in 14 innings. His sinker is clearly working wonders, but the interesting this is, he’s not even necessarily pounding the bottom of the zone. Most of his pitches have been around or near the middle of the zone. It’s just so “heavy” that it always seems to find its way to the ground.
Morton will never be a high Wins Above Replacement player as he just doesn’t strike out enough batters. But his lack of strikeouts won’t matter if he continues dominating hitters and making them put the ball on the ground. Ground balls aren’t as valuable as strike outs, but they’re the next best option.
Watch him pitch sometime. It’s a joy to see all of those ground balls.
