Chris Bassitt

2023 - 4 - 2

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Image courtesy of "Sportsnet.ca"

How Blue Jays' Bassitt adjusts his pitch mix against righty and lefty ... (Sportsnet.ca)

New Toronto Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt is essentially two different pitchers depending on whether he's facing a lefty or a righty.

His other favourite secondary pitch to use against lefties is an 85.1 mph changeup. No qualified pitcher threw a curveball with a lower average velocity than Bassitt in 2022 (71.6 mph). Righty bats always have to be aware of a sinker bearing in on them while also accounting for multiple breaking balls trailing away. The veteran right-hander has a beguiling seven-pitch repertoire and there is no corner of the plate he’s unwilling to explore. Just 34.2 per cent of Bassitt’s sinkers to right-handers last year were outside the strike zone. It’s more of a backup option than a centrepiece of Bassitt’s approach. One overwhelming jumble of pitch usage numbers then becomes two more manageable and coherent units to wrap your head around. While splits were a little bigger in 2022, it’s still fair to describe Bassitt as a perplexing opponent no matter who he’s facing. Bassitt is essentially two different pitchers depending on whether he’s facing a lefty or a righty. The righthander’s pitch mix against lefties induces plenty of whiffs, but the slight marginalization of the sinker in favour of the cutter leads to a downgrade in both control and command, affecting walk and home run rates. The 34-year-old likes to use his cutter to get up and in against left-handed hitters, inducing a higher pop-up (18.8 per cent) and whiff (31.0 per cent) rates. He’s also been equally effective against hitters from each side of the plate in his career, allowing a .682 OPS to lefties and a .660 OPS to righties.

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Bassitt gets roughed up for nine runs in Blue Jays debut while ... (Sportsnet.ca)

Chris Bassitt opted to call his own game through PitchCom in his Toronto Blue Jays debut. Between a dip in his velocity across the board and a pivotal ...

But they're a good team and a lot of pitches in the middle of plate. If anything, I need to do a better job of perhaps leaving my glove up in the zone. I think he was just too much in the middle of the plate,” said Schneider. “It's obviously a good offence over there,” said Jansen. Burleson opened the inning with a pop-up that had a hit probability of one percent but was misread in a spotless blue sky by Daulton Varsho for a double. In an ideal world, he’d prefer to have the catcher do the heavy lifting but with only 15 seconds between pitches, or 20 with runners on, there isn’t enough time to cycle through signs. “A convicted pitch that may be the wrong pitch sometimes is better than an unconvicted pitch that is the right pitch. fastball and sent it over the wall in left. At the same time, a pitcher needs to trust in what he’s throwing, which is what makes the back-and-forth between batterymates so layered. One batter later, Nolan Arenado singled him home and Gorman then hammered his second homer of the day, this one on an 88.7 m.p.h. And sometimes you’ve just got to say they were a really good team and they beat the heck out of me today.” “I said, ‘OK,’ he threw a heater, double off the wall, no-hitter gone.

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