Seeking More Ways to Get Outs, Bryan Hudson is Experimenting With a Sinker

[Jack Stern]

The Brewers' deceptive southpaw reliever unveiled his new changeup earlier this spring, and this week, he broke out the other arm-side mover he's been crafting.

It’s a tale as old as baseball’s modern era: a pitcher using spring training to develop a new pitch.

Even in an age when hurlers can visit high-tech pitching labs to develop and refine a new offering off the field, the ultimate litmus tests are whether they can execute it in games and the outcomes it generates against live hitters. Low-pressure preseason games are the best opportunity for pitchers to see whether they can parlay new pitches into the regular season.

After an offseason of experimentation, Bryan Hudson is taking advantage of that time this spring.

“You just got a little bit more time,” he said of the spring training environment. “You're not so on edge, so cutthroat about, ‘I don't want to get beat by my worst stuff. I'm going to throw my best stuff here.’ Here, you're working on stuff, getting better, and trying to see what will help you and what won’t in-season.”

Hudson had already debuted a changeup that gives him fading action away from right-handed batters. He’s also developing another new trick: a sinker he broke out against the San Diego Padres in Peoria on Monday. He and the Brewers are partly motivated by a desire to improve his below-average 40% ground ball rate from last year.

“It was a group decision for me to work on it,” Hudson said. “There were a few times last year where I felt like a two-seam could’ve got me a ground ball in a good spot where my four-seam didn’t.”

The first sinker he threw in Cactus League play induced the kind of batted ball he desired. Unfortunately, Jake Cronenworth’s ground ball near third base rolled past a shaded Juan Baez and down the line for a double.

Hudson threw the pitch inside to the left-handed-hitting Cronenworth, which is how he plans to use it in the regular season. While his four-seamer, cutter, and sweeper mix decimated lefties last year, holding them to a .295 xwOBA, the absence of arm-side movement largely relegated him to pitching them away.

The sinker gives Hudson a pitch he can run inside on same-handed opponents at the bottom of the zone, to change their sights.

“I can go (four-seamer) up and away, and then I can go sinker down and in, and then I’ve got the slider or the cutter, or I can go four up again (because) I just changed their eye level,” he illustrated. “Really, it’s a pitch just to change their eye level, trying to miss a barrel, get a ground ball. I don’t think it’ll be a swing-and-miss pitch that often, but I think it will get some weak contact.”

Hudson’s sidearm slot equips him to kill ride on the pitch and create sink. The one he threw on Monday had -1.1 inches of induced vertical break, meaning the orientation and spin of the baseball are slightly assisting gravity in making the ball drop instead of resisting it. That’s about where the pitch has been sitting as he’s worked on it, Hudson said.

“Yeah, zero (induced vertical break) and like negative 15, 16 (horizontal break), so it’s a decent sinker … On my four-seam, I’m across (the seams), and on the two-seam, I’m just literally ripping down off of one seam on my middle finger, and whenever I’m pronating, it turns it over and makes it (sink).”

As he enters his second season in Milwaukee, Hudson is working to become a more complete pitcher with more cards in his deck. His spring training results so far have been underwhelming, but he’s more focused on feeling good about his arsenal by Opening Day.

“I think it'll all pay off in the season," he said. "I’m not necessarily putting up zeros like I want to, but I think it’s a lot of trial and error right now. So that’s frustrating, but it’ll get better.”

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[wiguy94]

Hey @Jack Stern should we at all be concerned that Hudson’s sweeper still doesn’t seem to be back to last year’s level or has he intentionally reduced the velo on it? 

[Matthew Trueblood]

47 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Hey @Jack Stern should we at all be concerned that Hudson’s sweeper still doesn’t seem to be back to last year’s level or has he intentionally reduced the velo on it? 

The sweeper's velo isn't especially well-correlated with its effectiveness. He said he really just looks at fastball velocity, in terms of figuring out if his arm is working properly. And he was quite happy with the movement metrics on it, as of early this month. FWIW, the sweeper's pretty much right where it was last year at this time, and in April. In May, June, and July, he did add velocity on it, but at the expense of movement and separation from the fastball. I wouldn't sweat this at all, for now. 

[wiguy94]

12 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

The sweeper's velo isn't especially well-correlated with its effectiveness. He said he really just looks at fastball velocity, in terms of figuring out if his arm is working properly. And he was quite happy with the movement metrics on it, as of early this month. FWIW, the sweeper's pretty much right where it was last year at this time, and in April. In May, June, and July, he did add velocity on it, but at the expense of movement and separation from the fastball. I wouldn't sweat this at all, for now. 

Thanks for the answer Trueblood!