2019 MLB season: The Revitalization of the Pitcher

Recently, Chicago Cubs 3B Kris Bryant attempted to explain the recent development of tunneling as a pitching approach in the 2019 MLB season.

During the 2019 MLB season, everyone is obsessed with the home run – its frequency and its staggering length – a development in a pitching approach has arisen. Tunneling essentially is those overlays that 2019 Twitter sensation – at least among the baseball community – Pitching Ninja is constantly posting.

A pitcher throws consecutive pitches, or at the very least in the same at-bat, where they seem to occupy the same plane until they don’t. For example, a four-seam fastball occupies one plane, in which remains straight, meanwhile, his slider occupies the same exact plane for most of its journey to the plate. Finally, the pitch will move- the exact movement depends upon the pitcher- in a completely different direction and the batter is left defenseless.

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For instance, Jacob deGrom mainly uses a four-seam fastball and slider, yet still has a very effective change-up. An overlay of his 100-mph four-seamer and 93-mph slider depicts a pitch that seemingly is exactly identical, however, at the last moment the slider sharply cuts into the inside corner- left-hander Jay Bruce is batting in this instance- and the fastballs zips up and away.

In essence, Bruce ends up with one pitch on the low inside corner and the other up and away, not to mention the speed differential between the two. Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant discussed this phenomenon in regard to one of his at-bats against Aaron Nola and another against Trevor Bauer.

Both of these respective strikeouts resulted in strikeouts, however, it educated him for future at-bats. Nola’s two-seamer and curveball occupy the same plane of movement- the fastball begins out of the strike zone and moves back over the plate for a back door strike. Then, his curve looks exactly the same, however, it ends up at the batter’s foot-level.

Similarly, Bauer’s four-seam fastball and his devastating curveball have the same movement, thus a batter is left guessing as to whether he should swing or not. Bryant was able to handle Nola far better the third time through, as he was able to fight off some fastballs and force a hanging breaking ball, which he took advantage of in the form of a towering home run.

During the 2019 MLB season, this new approach is not exactly used by every pitcher, however, those who have the movement to handle such an approach can truly combat the power and approach of the modern-day batter, especially one as productive as Kris Bryant.