Davis Martin's "Kick" Changeup. Who is Edwin Uceta?

Martin Perez, Davis Martin, Edwin Uceta

• White Sox Davis Martin developed a fantastic changeup in a matter of days. The pitch is 87 mph with 2” vertical break and 16” arm-side movement. It separates by 6 mph, 15” vertical break and 7” to his arm-side when compared to his four-seam fastball. It’s rare to have 12”+ vertical separation and 5”+ horizontal separation while throwing the pitch only 6 mph slower than your fastball. FanGraphs Stuff+ gives the pitch a 141, a top-10 graded changeup in baseball. The grip is unconventional. Below is Hayden Birdsong’s kick-change, which is comparable to Martin’s. The spiked finger takes that finger out of the release, which allows the ring finger to set the axis of the pitch properly to catch a ton of depth at release. 👍

  • The craziest thing in all of this, according to White Sox special assistant Brian Bannister, is that Martin brought the pitch into a game the next day after only getting about 10 reps with it in a bullpen. He’s thrown it 20%+ since, mixing it to both lefties and righties. I don’t think this make Martin a “Dude” but it highlights how impossible projecting can be at times when a guy can add a plus-plus pitch on raw shape overnight that didn’t exist in his mix for the prior ~6 years of his pro ball career.

Hayden Bridsong’s “kick” changeup, a comparable grip to what Davis Martin uses.

• Padres Martin Perez had a mediocre start last night, but posted a strong trio of starts before yesterday to begin his Padres tenure. The Padres made some pretty quick usage changes versus righties with Perez. The main premise was to throw more non-fastballs. His sinker usage to righties went from 34% during June/July to just 21% with the Padres. His sinker allowed a .561 xSLG with a 3% swinging-strike rate. It made sense to cut usage. Perez’s curveball has jumped from 12% to 28% and his changeup is up from 21% to 28% with the Padres. Adding usage on his non-fastballs has pushed his righty swinging-strike rate from 8% up to 14%. He’s also focusing more on the outer third of the plate with both his sinker and cutter as opposed to pitching inside to righties. (See below for the modification to his sinker approach specifically.) 🎯

  • Perez’s overall season is still tracking poorly (4.50+ ERA and FIP). If there was ever a way to try to catch some lightning in a bottle, throwing more curveball and changeup is it. Now that they’re over 50% combined to righties, we’ll see how things progress.

Martin Perez’s sinker usage to righties. Notice how there are fewer sinkers inside (less concentration of red or frequency of location) with the Padres.

• Rays Edwin Uceta has been a top-5 reliever in baseball since July 1. There’s some regression coming on his sub-1 ERA, but not much. He’s made some changes compared to last year. First, the Rays gave him a cutter. The pitch looks pretty standard in shape and velocity. He’s now throwing it 30% to righties. Second, the curveball he threw has pushed below 10% after sitting above 20% last season. Third, his changeup usage has climbed to 50% against lefties and over 30% to righties. It’s a nasty pitch, ton of drop separation from his fastball without much velocity separation. ☀️

  • It all works for Uceta because his slot is super low (4.6’ where 5.8’ is average). His “sinker” acts like a four-seam fastball in terms of the shape he’s creating. The approach angle of the pitch is incredibly flat (-3.6° where -4.7° is average). It has the 3rd-flattest approach angle of any pitch in baseball thrown from a release at or above 4.6’. The Rays made some subtle tweaks here and took the risk on a pitcher coming off a meniscus injury. They continue to be the kings of making relievers great out of nothing.