Jacob DeGrom doesn’t like to be overlooked or over shadowed by his other two young rotation mates Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. Over the past two weeks, Harvey and Syndergaard have been taking the spotlight away from the 2014 National League Rookie of the Year with their 96+ mph fastballs and high strikeout count.
Here are the top three reasons deGrom dominated the Cardinals hitters on Thursday afternoon:
Fastball Velocity:
That 97 mph fastball that we saw thrown to Kolten Wong on the third pitch of the game was seen nine more times during the course of deGrom’s outing. You may be saying to yourself, he has always been a mid-90’s guy. To some degree that is correct but he traditionally sits at 94 to 95 mph during the course of his starts and will touch 96 mph a few times during the course of a game. In yesterday’s start, he was consistently throwing 95 to 96 mph, occasionally reaching 97 mph. Now you may be asking, what is the importance in a one mph difference in his fastball?
Any professional or even some collegiate hitters can tell you that after the 94 or 95 mph threshold, each mph after that is significantly harder than the previous mph. In simple terms, seeing a 96 mph is noticeably different than seeing a 95 mph fastball, seeing 97 mph fastball is noticeably different than seeing 96 mph fastball and so on and so forth. Conversely, seeing a 93 mph fastball is that much different than a 92 mph fastball.
Additionally, there are many starters around the MLB that consistently throw 93 to 95 mph and touch 96 mph but there are far less that can consistently throw 96 mph and touch 97 to 98 mph (look outside the Mets rotation, we are completely spoiled).
Command of Fastball, Slider and Changeup:
DeGrom’s command of all three pitches was the best we’ve seen from a Mets pitcher since Harvey’s first start of the season against the Washington Nationals. When a pitcher has the ability to command three pitches it allows their pitch selection to effortlessly fall into place as he was able to throw any one of his three pitches in any count to any hitter.
Additionally, deGrom was usually ahead in the count due to him command dictating called and swinging strikes early in every at-bat. This makes it even easier for him to choose any pitch on any count because he knows that even if he misses with an off-speed pitch, at worst he will be even in the count.
His command was so good yesterday that I don’t even need to reference any specific at-bat. In all the innings he threw a changeup (four of the eight innings pitched), DeGrom threw each of his three pitches for a strike. In every inning yesterday, he threw at least his fastball and slider for a strike.
Movement and Speed Differential with Fastball
Although deGrom was throwing harder, he didn’t lose his small two-seam run or movement on his fastball. The fastball may only break an inch or two but due to the velocity and how late the movement occurs, it helps him create weaker contact and induce more swing and misses.
DeGrom also varied velocity on his fastball, essentially giving him two different pitches for the price of one. His “go to” fastball was 94 to 95 mph which was placed low and away to nearly every batter he faced during the course of the game to get ahead early in at-bats. Once he reached counts of 0-2 or 1-2, he ramped up his fastball to 96 and 97 mph, locating it either low and away from the batter or chest high over the plate to induce a swing and miss.
The strategy of varying fastball velocity is one that should be stressed to younger pitchers. Whether they are young in the MLB or young in little league, it’s an extremely easy and safe way to gain a strikeout pitch as opposed to trying to learn or gain another off-speed pitch in their repertoire.
Just for fun, deGrom showed a cutter in the first inning against Matt Carpenter and third inning against Wong. If the Cardinals hitters didn’t already have enough problems, he placed one more pitch in the minds of two of the best Cardinals hitter’s early in the game.
Stat of the day: In comparison to my stat on Jon Niese’s bad outing in Tuesday night’s game against the Cardinals where Niese only threw 12 of 25 first pitch strikes, deGrom threw a first pitch strike against 20 out of the 25 Cardinal batters he faced yesterday.
