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PitcherNew PitchArticle LinkInitial VerdictReasoningEnd of Year Check-in
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Hunter GreeneCurve/ SplitterArticle 1MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
I’d love to see Greene with a curveball he can command for strikes, and think that could be a true difference-maker for him.
However, until I see it in a game, I can't believe in it
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Erick FeddeSweeper/SplitterArticle 1IMMENSELY IMPACTFUL
Fedde becoming rosterable means these changes are immensely impactful. He was already pretty good at preventing hard contact but now
he’s stopped throwing the pitch that gave up the most hard contact and added a swing-and-miss pitch that he can also throw for strikes.
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Bryce MillerSplitterArticle 1MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
We certainly don’t want to ignore Miller adding a potential plus swing-and-miss pitch, but the splitter really doesn’t address either of the two main
issues that Miller had heading into the offseason - like his poor splits against lefties.
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Tylor MegillSplitterArticle 1POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
Admittedly, the bar is low here. By most metrics, Megill has one above-average pitch in his slider, so adding a second above average pitch
would automatically be a good thing.
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Spencer StriderCurveArticle 2MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
Anything that Strider adds isn’t going to have a massive impact on his value because he’s already one of the top, if not THE top, starter in
fantasy baseball. The curve looks like it could be a good pitch for lefties, but we have no idea how often he’ll throw it.
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Lucas GiolitoSliderArticle 2IMMENSELY IMPACTFUL
If Giolito is just able to fix either of his slider or fastball pitches, he would likely rebound to be a low 4.00-ERA pitcher with a solid strikeout rate,
but if he’s able to get both pitches back to their previous levels, we could actually see him come close to the 2021 season where he had a 3.53 ERA
and a 1.10 WHIP with 200 strikeouts in 179 innings.
Sadly, Giolito needed to undergo UCL surgery before the regular season began, so we never saw what he would look like with these changes
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Grayson RodriguezSinkerArticle 2MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
I’d like to see Rodriguez with a version of a two-seamer so long as he can differentiate it from his four-seam. However, I’m not sure we’re really
going to get meaningful usage on whatever new pitch he’s bringing in.
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Cole IrvinSinkerArticle 2MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
It seems like these changes will help Irvin become a more reliable ratio starter but not do much to add more strikeout upside to his game.
That could make him a more reliable streamer, but not likely somebody you want to roster full time.
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Cole Ragans
Slider/ Two-Seamer
Article 3MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
I’m a full believer in Ragans but mainly because I’m a believer that what he did last year was real. I don’t think the tweaked slider
or new two-seamer will make any major difference
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Cristopher SanchezCutterArticle 3MEANINGFULLY IMPACTFUL
The added cutter isn’t going to do anything to Sánchez’s strikeout rate, so it’s not going to make a huge difference to his fantasy profile.
However, I do believe it will make it more likely that 2023 isn’t a huge fluke.
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Bailey OberCutterArticle 3MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
I think this new pitch will be good for Ober but not a massive difference-maker. It could help him improve against lefties by no longer
needing to throw his slower slider, but he wasn’t bad against lefties to begin with.
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Chris PaddackCutterArticle 3MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
I think I might be out on Paddack here. I know people love to think about his upside, but he showed major issues against righties
during that last full season and doesn’t appear to have changed his pitch mix or approach in a way that would suggest growth in that area.
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Zack WheelerSplitterArticle 4MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
Listen, nothing is going to make a MAJOR impact with Wheeler when he’s already one of the top five starters in fantasy.
The splitter could help with his minor split issues against lefties and raise him up a touch
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Joe MusgroveSweeperArticle 4POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
We know exactly how Musgrove plans to use the sweeper, which is great news; however, we don’t know much about its shape
or how often he’ll use it. All of that makes it hard to trust, but it will certainly be something I’m watching.
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Joe RyanSinker/SplitterArticle 4MEANINGFULLY IMPACTFUL
I love that Ryan has tweaked his splitter and slider. That alone does make me more interested in him than I was when I felt like he had no
consistent offerings besides his four-seam. There is an untapped ceiling that he could reach if that sinker helps to mitigate hard contact.
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Gavin Stone
Cutter/ Two-Seamer
Article 4MEANINGFULLY IMPACTFUL
Look, Stone was an afterthought about a month ago, so the fact that he has looked as good as he has is meaningfully impactful. He’s now
firmly on the radar in 12-team leagues and deeper, and I think he will be less volatile than he was last year.
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Shane BieberChange-UpArticle 5IMMENSELY IMPACTFUL
There are just too many changes here to ignore. The velocity. The tweak to the cutter. The re-introduction of the change-up.
The changes to the knuckle curve. These are all things that are crucial for Bieber's success.
Sadly, Bieber needed to undergo UCL surgery after looking electric in his first two starts of the season
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Garrett WhitlockSlider/CutterArticle 5MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
The new pitches are nice to see from Whitlock and the new philosophical direction of the Red Sox will likely enable him to stick
in the rotation with his new five-pitch mix, but until that sweeper starts missing bats, his upside is going to be capped by a lack of strikeouts.
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Logan GilbertSplitter/CutterArticle 5MEANINGFULLY IMPACTFUL
A deeper arsenal of pitches is a great thing for Gilbert, who could take a big step forward with more reliable pitches. After one start,
the trio of breaking balls seemed to provide him more swing-and-miss
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Aaron CivaleSweeperArticle 5POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
Civale needed swing and miss to his game, and he tweaked two pitches in ways that should give him that. We didn’t see it after one start,
and he likely will never be a real strikeout asset, but I believe we’ll see gains that make him more than just a standard 12-team streaming option.
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Reid DetmersFour-SeamArticle 6POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
Detmers has set himself up for success with his new fastball shape and attack plan. If he’s able to consistently miss more bats with it, he should
have more strikeout upside and fantasy upside. The pitch will still get hit hard at times, but at least now we’ll have strikeouts to offset that.
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Spencer TurnbullSweeperArticle 6MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
This feels like a slightly above-average arsenal that requires proper sequencing and everything to work in order for the results to be there.
Sometimes it won’t and he’s going to have rough starts, but I think he will be firmly on the 12-team streamer radar for a while.
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Jordan HicksSplitterArticle 6IMMENSELY IMPACTFUL
Considering I didn’t believe in Hicks as a starter at all, the fact that we’re seeing this level of performance from him is a big change. It does hinge on
the sinker command though. The splitter is a solid pitch, but he needs to pound the strike zone with the sinker to allow the splitter to flourish.
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Louie VarlandCurveArticle 6MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
This isn’t even a knock on the curve, which I think has looked good through the first two starts. I’m just not sure the rest of Varland’s arsenal
meshes well, and I’m not sure the way he attacks hitters sets him up for success.
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Max FriedSweeperArticle 7MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
Fried throws six pitches and his sweeper is used just 15% of the time, so this isn’t a pitch that’s going to drastically change his profile.
However, it appears to be a better version of his slider and will give him more swing-and-miss upside against righties.
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Jose ButtoSweeperArticle 7POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
On the surface, these changes could be good for Buttó . However, the sweeper is not missing bats so far and he hasn’t been able to throw
either version of the slider for strikes. The results have been good so far, but this feels a bit risky without actually having command.
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Cristian JavierChange-UpArticle 7IMMENSELY IMPACTFUL
We can’t blame the changeup for Javier's poor strikeout rate. That’s an issue with the slider. The changeup has given Javier a much safer
floor and allowed him to limit hard contact. If that slider returns, he could be a top-30 pitcher.
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Graham AshcraftSinkerArticle 7MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
I don’t think there is any real growth here. Yes, the sinker should limit some hard contact against righties, and we like that, but he’s struggling
to command the pitch and is also now struggling to command the cutter, so that pitch is regressing against lefties. I guess he could be a more
reliable streamer in plus matchups now, but I still think this is not something worth chasing.
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Reese OlsonFour-SeamArticle 8POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
I appreciate the shift in changeup usage, and it’s certainly worked for him so far. I also think the adjustment to using the sinker more to
right-handed hitters could be good overall. He just needs to fix the locations on it to see a real impact.
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Luis SeverinoSweeperArticle 8MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
The sweeper theoretically should miss bats against righties, but he can’t command it in the zone and is throwing it up, which doesn’t make much
sense and is likely not his intended location. I’m not buying into this and if you can trade him to somebody, that might be the best path.
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Seth LugoCurve/ CutterArticle 8MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL
Lugo is not all of a sudden going to become a dynamic fantasy starter, but so far, he’s allowing less hard contact. He’s been consistently
mixing and matching his pitch mix to keep hitters off balance and induce as much soft contact as he can. For a pitcher without overwhelming
stuff, the more options he has to do that, the better.
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Kevin GausmanSinkerArticle 9POTENTIALLY IMPACTFULI love this as an idea, but right now it’s just an idea and one that he’s not really executing. It may take a while for Gausman to truly find the release
and comfort with the sinker but when he does, I think it will be an important offering for lowering his high BABIPs.
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Ben LivelySweeperArticle 9MARGINALLY IMPACTFULThe changes to Lively’s pitch mix are definitely a positive. With the sweeper and harder slider, he now has four pitches that grade out as slightly
above average. He's learning how to locate all of those and nothing he throws is elite, but if he has four or five average to slightly above-average pitches
that he can use to keep hitters off balance, that sounds like a streamer in 12 or 15-team leagues.
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Dylan CeaseCutter/ SweeperArticle 9MINIMALLY IMPACTFULI like the idea for both of these, but neither pitch has been effective right now, and it’s hard to say when they will be. I’d prefer that he focused more on
the cutter because I think it fills a need more than the sweeper does
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Simeon Woods-Richardson
Four-Seam/SliderArticle 9IMMENSELY IMPACTFULI don’t think the arsenal is particularly deep, and I worry about him in lineups with a lot of lefties, but these are undoubtedly good changes and should
add some swing-and-miss against right-handed hitters. Provided he cleans up the four-seam command, he has a shot to stick in the rotation and be a
streamer against any but the top offenses.
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Yoshinobu YamamotoSliderArticle 10MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL If Yamamoto were to add another pitch that he could throw for strikes against righties and also miss some bats with, that would obviously be a good thing.
However, everything in Yamamoto’s profile just screams to me that fixing the four-seam is the only thing that will make an impact on taking him from a
really good pitcher to a great one.
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Mitchell ParkerSliderArticle 10POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
Parker needs another pitch to lefties and the slider could be that. However, right now it’s hard to get excited about a new pitch he can’t locate and hasn’t
graded out well in a small sample. It could happen, and I’d like to see him keep working on it, but this isn’t something actionable in fantasy leagues right now
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Framber ValdezSliderArticle 10POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
I want this to be the 2022 cutter. It could really be the 2022 cutter; however, why would we be seeing command/location issues if Framber was just bringing
back a pitch he threw two years ago? Why did he change it in the first place? I have so many questions
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Taj BradleyCutter/ ChangeArticle 11POTENTIALLY IMPACTFULWe don’t want to overreact to one start, but I do love the idea of this new cutter low and away to righties as a strike pitch with a fastball being used up in
the zone. However, the command of the pitches needs to be better, and that was an issue for him last year. I’m optimistic but there is still work to be done.
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Matt Manning
Four-Seam/Sweeper
Article 11MARGINALLY IMPACTFULThe pieces are here. Manning’s stuff grades out better. He has a fastball that can succeed upstairs. He has a sweeper that can miss bats. He just needs to tighten
up the approach to maximize the effectiveness of each pitch.
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Luis GilCutterArticle 11MARGINALLY IMPACTFULThe cutter could be a great pitch to offset some of the concerns with contact against lefties but the command issues are going to take more. It would be great
to see Gil have a pitch he can consistently throw in the strike zone, but he also needs better command of his other offerings before we see him at his ceiling.
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Yu DarvishSliderArticle 12IMMENSELY IMPACTFULYes, part of Darvish’s improvement has just been connected to health, but any time a pitcher is throwing his best pitch more often, it’s something that we like
to see. It has also taken some of the pressure off of his other pitches, which are fine but likely didn’t need to be used as frequently as he was using them.
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Jose SorianoFour-Seam/SinkerArticle 12MARGINALLY IMPACTFULThe change to a more sinker-focused approach has raised Soriano’s floor. It has given him better command and set up his secondaries for success. All of that is
important to his uptick in performance, but for us to think that he has legitimate staying power, we need to see improved command of his secondary pitches
and another step forward for that slider.
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Robert GasserCutterArticle 12MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
The cutter is nice to see because it’s proof of the deep arsenal Gasser has and it solidifies him as a high floor pitcher. However, the upside will come with changes
to the rest of his pitch mix. If Gasser is able to use his cutter to get ahead of righties and keep them honest on the inside part of the plate, then I think an elevated
four-seam can help him to miss more bats.
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Tanner BibeeFour-SeamArticle 13POTENTIALLY IMPACTFUL
It’s only three starts, so we don’t want to overreact. However, if these changes continue, and Bibee appears to be deliberately trying to change his four-seam
shape, then this could be a huge improvement
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Matt WaldronKnuckleballArticle 13MINIMALLY IMPACTFULThe added velocity is nice. I’m just saying “minimally impactful” here because, velocity or not, the knuckleball is a fickle pitch and it can abandon a pitcher at a
moment’s notice. It’s nice to see Waldron being more successful with the pitch, and you can certainly use him while he’s on this heater, but even a change in the
pitch velocity won’t give you any more security
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Michael WachaSliderArticle 13MINIMALLY IMPACTFULThe pitch isn’t there yet. He struggles to command it and he’s not using it much in two-strike counts, so it’s not going to led to major changes in his strikeout rate.
However, having another pitch to use to right-handed hitters that can keep them off his sinker and changeup will certainly help.
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Cal QuantrillSplitterArticle 13MARGINALLY IMPACTFULLook, the splitter is his best pitch. In that regard, it has made a clear difference for Quantrill. It makes him a pitcher you can consider when looking for streamers;
however, I don’t think it makes him somebody who has “solved” Coors Field
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