The Mets were one of the most consistent teams last season when it came to release points from their pitchers. Zach Crizer of Baseball Prospectus wrote an article on this. Since the article is locked to subscribers only and I am very cheap, I decided to go on Baseball Savant myself to find the data.

The Mets average vertical release point on fastballs, sliders, curveballs, and changeups were 5.62 feet, 5.69 feet, 5.69 feet, and 5.68 feet respectively. Interestingly, the Indians and Royals were also very consistent in their release points and they also released the ball much lower relative to the rest of the league, like the Mets did. Perhaps Mickey Callaway and Dave Eiland brought over some advice from their 2017 teams.

What makes release points important? Well the big thing is it makes pitches harder to pick up. Hitters have a much harder time deciphering what type of pitch is coming their way when the release point is the same for their fastball and breaking pitches. It also increases their perceived velocity which makes it even less fair for hitters.

Michael Augustine of Pitcher’s List analyzed how release points can help a pitcher. He essentially found that it is a useful tool that is not the end all be all but it certainly does not hurt. He did find that pitchers with less variance generally gave up weaker contact than those who had higher variance. Ultimately, pitchers with good stuff find ways to get away with changing their releases.

For the Mets, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Seth Lugo all had very consistent release points. Jason Vargas was the one who was not consistent with his release. Of course, Vargas’ struggles are not solely due to releasing the ball at a different positions on his different pitches. His stuff is not great and he does not have a lot of pitches to work with. That said, he does himself no favors by allowing hitters detect when he is throwing his changeup vs when he is not.

With Wheeler, Syndergaard, and deGrom, it is almost unfair to other hitters when these guys are as consistent as they are while also throwing as hard as they can. All have shown impressive stretches of dominance and I think all can be counted on for a big 2019 season.

It seems likely that Eiland and Callaway will continue to preach this philosophy as we begin spring baseball.