Article: The Unexpected Versatility of Peter Strzelecki's New Sinker

[Matthew Trueblood]

Close, hard-fought wins have defined the first month of the Brewers’ 2023 season. Budding star reliever Peter Strzelecki has been indispensable in securing those victories, and he’s found success partially through an unusual adjustment. Let’s discuss it.

Image courtesy of © Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

For Peter Strzelecki, deception is the name of the game. The palpable funk in his delivery makes life tough on opponents, both in terms of making contact at all and in terms of hitting the ball hard when they do get the bat on it. He’s thrown enough strikes to dominate through the early going, and he hung another zero in the top of the eighth inning Friday night against the Angels.

That scoreless frame brought Strzelecki’s ERA down to 0.71. He’s faced 50 batters this year, and issued only one free pass. It would be a great story if he were merely mowing hitters down with the high fastball and big, sweeping slider combination that yielded so many strikeouts last season, but there’s more to the story. In fact, Strzelecki has only fanned seven batters. Instead, he’s succeeding with that excellent control and an improved ability to manage contact. He’s inducing more ground balls and fewer hard-hit balls. That’s how he got through that pivotal inning against the Angels, despite going through the heart of their batting order, and despite Mike Brosseau’s throwing error, which put the leadoff man on base.

Specifically, what Strzelecki has done is curious: he’s added a sinker. That doesn’t sound radical, but for a short reliever who already had a functional three-pitch mix, it’s an odd choice. Stranger still, he’s throwing the pitch about equally often against both right- and left-handed batters. 

Usually, a sinker is a pitch with a big platoon split. The armside movement on the offering works well against same-handed batters, especially in combination with a slider that moves horizontally, but it usually creates just as many problems against opposite-handed hitters. When Strzelecki spoke to Curt Hogg of the Journal-Sentinel about the sinker early this month, he talked about using it to attack righties, not lefties.

So far, though, the actual usage of the pitch has been much more broad. He’s not missing many bats with the sinker, but he’s throwing it for strikes and getting ground balls with it, even against lefties. His sinker is distinct from his four-seamer, in movement and even (albeit by only a mile per hour or so) in velocity. It almost operates like a turbo version of his changeup. 

The best guess here is that, because of his unusual mechanics and good command, Strzelecki can get away with (and even benefit from) something that other pitchers wouldn’t be able to pull off. He throws hard enough, from a strange enough angle, while hiding the ball long enough that any little bit of extra movement puts hitters on the defensive. Strzelecki’s changeup already helped him do that against lefties, but it’s a circle change that gets its movement from the spin direction that grip applies to the ball as it leaves the hand. The sinker, by contrast, spins much the same way as his four-seamer out of his hand, but the orientation of the seams leads it to move more like the changeup.

There are still some important red flags around Strzelecki. His velocity is down two miles per hour thus far, which helps explain the fact that he’s generating fewer whiffs. One has to worry a bit about both his effectiveness and his health, given such a sudden and significant loss of heat. As long as he is healthy, though, the sinker is an interesting solution to the problem of having less intense stuff. His early results tell us that it has a chance to be a good one.

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[Harold Hutchison]

With a fourth pitch... might it be worth considering stretching Strzelecki out to be a starter?

[wiguy94]

4 hours ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Close, hard-fought wins have defined the first month of the Brewers’ 2023 season. Budding star reliever Peter Strzelecki has been indispensable in securing those victories, and he’s found success partially through an unusual adjustment. Let’s discuss it.

author-tracker.gifauthor-tracker.gif

Image courtesy of © Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

For Peter Strzelecki, deception is the name of the game. The palpable funk in his delivery makes life tough on opponents, both in terms of making contact at all and in terms of hitting the ball hard when they do get the bat on it. He’s thrown enough strikes to dominate through the early going, and he hung another zero in the top of the eighth inning Friday night against the Angels.

That scoreless frame brought Strzelecki’s ERA down to 0.71. He’s faced 50 batters this year, and issued only one free pass. It would be a great story if he were merely mowing hitters down with the high fastball and big, sweeping slider combination that yielded so many strikeouts last season, but there’s more to the story. In fact, Strzelecki has only fanned seven batters. Instead, he’s succeeding with that excellent control and an improved ability to manage contact. He’s inducing more ground balls and fewer hard-hit balls. That’s how he got through that pivotal inning against the Angels, despite going through the heart of their batting order, and despite Mike Brosseau’s throwing error, which put the leadoff man on base.

Specifically, what Strzelecki has done is curious: he’s added a sinker. That doesn’t sound radical, but for a short reliever who already had a functional three-pitch mix, it’s an odd choice. Stranger still, he’s throwing the pitch about equally often against both right- and left-handed batters. 

Usually, a sinker is a pitch with a big platoon split. The armside movement on the offering works well against same-handed batters, especially in combination with a slider that moves horizontally, but it usually creates just as many problems against opposite-handed hitters. When Strzelecki spoke to Curt Hogg of the Journal-Sentinel about the sinker early this month, he talked about using it to attack righties, not lefties.

So far, though, the actual usage of the pitch has been much more broad. He’s not missing many bats with the sinker, but he’s throwing it for strikes and getting ground balls with it, even against lefties. His sinker is distinct from his four-seamer, in movement and even (albeit by only a mile per hour or so) in velocity. It almost operates like a turbo version of his changeup. 

The best guess here is that, because of his unusual mechanics and good command, Strzelecki can get away with (and even benefit from) something that other pitchers wouldn’t be able to pull off. He throws hard enough, from a strange enough angle, while hiding the ball long enough that any little bit of extra movement puts hitters on the defensive. Strzelecki’s changeup already helped him do that against lefties, but it’s a circle change that gets its movement from the spin direction that grip applies to the ball as it leaves the hand. The sinker, by contrast, spins much the same way as his four-seamer out of his hand, but the orientation of the seams leads it to move more like the changeup.

There are still some important red flags around Strzelecki. His velocity is down two miles per hour thus far, which helps explain the fact that he’s generating fewer whiffs. One has to worry a bit about both his effectiveness and his health, given such a sudden and significant loss of heat. As long as he is healthy, though, the sinker is an interesting solution to the problem of having less intense stuff. His early results tell us that it has a chance to be a good one.

 

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The velo is definitely starting to concern me a bit. Hopefully he's just a guy whose velo improves as the weather gets warmer. Last night he had 1st and 3rd and 1 out and couldn't generate a single whiff. It's definitely somewhat concerning especially if he's going to be in the 8th inning role going forward.

Still think he can be a good leverage RP in his current mold but not one that I will trust if he gets into a tough spot.

[Brewcrew82]

27 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

The velo is definitely starting to concern me a bit. Hopefully he's just a guy whose velo improves as the weather gets warmer. Last night he had 1st and 3rd and 1 out and couldn't generate a single whiff. It's definitely somewhat concerning especially if he's going to be in the 8th inning role going forward.

Still think he can be a good leverage RP in his current mold but not one that I will trust if he gets into a tough spot.

Think he's better suited in the 6th/7th innings, serving as a bridge from starters to set-up man/Devin. Abner Uribe would be the guy internally who could fill the 8th inning role. Aroldis Chapman could be a consideration at the deadline. 

I'm hoping they promote Uribe to AAA within the next couple of weeks. Unless they think he'll be able to make the jump right from AA. 

[wiguy94]

Just now, Brewcrew82 said:

Think he's better suited in the 6th/7th innings, serving as a bridge from starters to set-up man/Devin. Abner Uribe would be the guy internally who could fill the 8th inning role. Aroldis Chapman could be a consideration at the deadline. 

I'm hoping they promote Uribe to AAA within the next couple of weeks. Unless they think he'll be able to make the jump right from AA. 

Agreed that how he currently is pitching makes the most sense in a 7th inning type role not an 8th. Need to hope one of Cousins/Uribe/Andrews can be an 8th inning type guy for us at some point this season. I think they all have the stuff to do it, but it's not a guarantee that any of them are ready for it this year.

I expect Uribe to be in AAA eventually. Largely because AA is using a different ball than AAA and MLB (which are using the same ball). The AA ball is the same ball but they dip it into a tacky substance so it's performing way differently than the regular ball so far. A huge reason why strikeouts are way up in AA right now.

[Brewcrew82]

Just now, wiguy94 said:

Agreed that how he currently is pitching makes the most sense in a 7th inning type role not an 8th. Need to hope one of Cousins/Uribe/Andrews can be an 8th inning type guy for us at some point this season. I think they all have the stuff to do it, but it's not a guarantee that any of them are ready for it this year.

I expect Uribe to be in AAA eventually. Largely because AA is using a different ball than AAA and MLB (which are using the same ball). The AA ball is the same ball but they dip it into a tacky substance so it's performing way differently than the regular ball so far. A huge reason why strikeouts are way up in AA right now.

Yeah. We should be fine experimenting with those guys until the deadline imo. 

I'd throw Peguero into the mix, too. His sinker, slider combination is pretty nasty. 

[wiguy94]

3 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Yeah. We should be fine experimenting with those guys until the deadline imo. 

I'd throw Peguero into the mix, too. His sinker, slider combination is pretty nasty. 

Honestly even Wilson should get some chances as a leverage guy. Especially if he can touch that 95 range with his FB. 

[SF70]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

Honestly even Wilson should get some chances as a leverage guy. Especially if he can touch that 95 range with his FB. 

This team is in great shape bullpen-wise this season. Besides Peguero, Andrews, Uribe, Wilson as possible HL arms, they also have Gasser & Small, who have started to make progress throwing-strikes at AAA. Ways to go, especially Small, but the progress is real.

[wiguy94]

6 minutes ago, SF70 said:

This team is in great shape bullpen-wise this season. Besides Peguero, Andrews, Uribe, Wilson as possible HL arms, they also have Gasser & Small, who have started to make progress throwing-strikes at AAA. Ways to go, especially Small, but the progress is real.

Really hope Joseph Hernandez can be a bullpen arm someday because Topa is looking awfully good in Seattle and we shipped him out to clear 40-man space for Guerra who we gave up on after 20 games.

[Harold Hutchison]

Don't forget Cam Robinson, who's been a closer in his minor-league career.

[wiguy94]

13 minutes ago, clancyphile said:

Don't forget Cam Robinson, who's been a closer in his minor-league career.

He's seriously struggled since he got to AAA though. He's not remotely ready for an MLB call up.

[csbysam]

23 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Think he's better suited in the 6th/7th innings, serving as a bridge from starters to set-up man/Devin. Abner Uribe would be the guy internally who could fill the 8th inning role. Aroldis Chapman could be a consideration at the deadline. 

I'm hoping they promote Uribe to AAA within the next couple of weeks. Unless they think he'll be able to make the jump right from AA. 

Does his walk rate concern you? It does for me

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, csbysam said:

Does his walk rate concern you? It does for me

A little. But a high walk-rate is okay for relievers with shutdown stuff, which he clearly has. See Williams, Devin.