New Sweepers for Hunter Brown and Emmet Sheehan
Hunter Brown, Emmet Sheehan, Taj Bradley, Luis Severino
Astros Hunter Brown has a new breaking ball. He started throwing it back on June 25 and has used it sparingly since. It’s being charted as a sweeper, but the resulting shape is a bit different than the average sweeper. He has it between 85-86 mph which is slightly harder than his curve, it’s generating 8-9” sweep on average and has -3” drop. So it’s harder than the average sweeper, sweeping less and dropping more.
My guess is that this came into his repertoire because he was having a lot of trouble with his slider to right-handed hitters in May and June. It was generating just a 10% swing-miss rate, where 33% is average and xwOBA on contact was poor relative to the league average for sliders (.411). He ripped the pitch a ton in Colorado, which is complicating the average movement a bit. Yesterday he used it 4 times, mixing it in early and deep count. Driveline Baseball’s Stuff+ has it at 139, right around the quality of his slider/cutter and below his curveball. 😵💫
Dodgers Emmet Sheehan broke out a sweeper last night. The pitch is generating 20” sweep at 79 mph with 0” vertical break. For reference, the average right-handed sweeper is 82 mph with 15” sweep. So he’s trading some velo for extra sweep. Driveline Baseball’s Stuff+ has this as his best pitch, giving it a 158. FanGraphs Stuff+ has it as a 172. He is dropping his release about 4” relative to his four-seam to get around the sweeper. Often arm angle changes are overrated, but when they’re this large, they’re worth noting. He got a pair of foul tips on the 7 he threw and then gave up a barrel on one that missed arm-side up. Also worth noting: he threw 3 of 7 to left-handed hitters, which was always taboo to me, but it seems like teams don’t … care?
His ERA and FIP look terrible, but his xwOBA on contact for his 4S-SL-CH pitches are strong, primary struggle seems to be getting secondaries in zone, fastball isn’t generating exceptional swing-miss. 🎬
Quick Hits: I’m still in on Luis Severino, the harder cutter he showed last week in Los Angeles stuck versus the Royals yesterday, results just weren’t as strong. I thought his main issue this season was the lack of that cutter separation from his slider and his last 2 starts have eased that concern. Taj Bradley continues to kill vertical break on his changeup, sending the grade of the pitch north (162 Driveline Stuff+ yesterday is a season-high). I think this could be a game-changer for him versus left-handed hitters, who have mashed him this season. 🖖✂️