Darvish's Slider Makes Him Strikeout King

Legend has it that Satchel Paige was so confident in his ability to strike out batters that he would call his outfielders to the infield, inviting them to take a seat and bear witness to his greatness. You probably won't see Yu Darvish motion for Nelson Cruz any time soon, but you couldn't blame the Texas Rangers ace if he did.

Darvish has whiffed 72 hitters in 45.2 frames this season, a staggering 14.2 per nine innings pitched. His closest competitor among qualified starting pitchers is Max Scherzer, with a comparatively puny 12.4 K/9. Yu is punching out batters at a pace that even Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson couldn't manage in their primes, and he's doing it by throwing nearly twice as many sliders as he did last season.

As a rookie, Darvish threw his slider about 19% of the time. Batters swung and missed 44% of the time against the pitch, a mark bested only by Zack Greinke and Edwin Jackson among starters who threw at least 500 sliders. This year, Darvish has thrown his slider 37%. Hitters aren't catching on, though, whiffing at an even higher clip (46%).

Darvish has finished off 43 of the 72 batters he has struck out (60%) with a slider. The increase in sliders thrown is a major reason why Darvish's opponent contact rate has plummeted, particularly to the glove side: 

Darvish's contact rate by pitch location, 2012

Darvish's contact rate by pitch location, 2013

Yu has only made seven starts, but it's worth noting that no starting pitcher in history has ever punched out hitters at the clip he's currently managing over the course of a full season. Darvish's current K/9, if it were to hold up, would put Pedro and The Big Unit to shame. Kinda makes you wonder if the Rangers need outfielders on the day Darvish pitches.

Highest single-season K/9 for qualified starters

 Source: Baseball-Reference.com

Buchholz to Batters: Made You Look

After a mediocre, low-strikeout 2012 season, Clay Buchholz is missing lots of bats while emerging as first-place Boston's ace. Buchholz has struck out 47 hitters in 44.2 innings pitched (9.5 K/9), a marked improvement over the 6.1 batters per nine he put down last season. A certain mustachioed color commentator thinks Buchholz is taking a page out of Gaylord Perry's playbook by throwing a spitter, a charge that Buchholz vehemently denies:

"Loading up with what, rosin?" Buchholz said. "I get wet from my hair. Are they talking about the stains on my shirt? There probably are stains on my shirt, because I've been wearing the same shirt for the last three years." (ESPNBoston.com)

Whatever the truth value of Jack Morris' spitball claim, can we all at least agree it's time for Clay to do some laundry? Ick. Whether by spitball or sheer smell of his uni, Buchholz has induced plenty of Ks this season by freezing hitters. Overall, about a quarter of the strikeouts registered by pitchers this season have been called strike threes. But more than half of Buchholz's strikeouts been of the looking variety:

Most looking strikeouts among MLB starters, 2013

The vast majority of Buchholz's looking Ks (18) have been on fastballs, with just a few curves and cutters sprinkled in. He's catching righties and lefties alike with glove-side pitches thrown just off the corner of the rule book-defined strike zone:

Location of Buchholz's looking strikeouts

Maybe he's throwing a spitter. Or, maybe his well-worn shirt is offending hitters' olfactory senses enough that it's hard for them to swing. Either way, Buchholz's big increase in Ks means his breakout passes the smell test.

Matt Harvey's High Heat

The Mets are off to a 6-4 start this year, and Matt Harvey is a major reason why. Harvey has surrendered just one run while winning his first two starts, punching out 19 batters in 14 innings pitched. The 24-year-old right-hander with a blistering fastball is challenging hitters with high heat -- and he's winning.

Here is Harvey's fastball location so far in 2013:

Overall, major league starting pitchers have thrown about 35% of their fastballs to the upper third of the strike zone this season. But Harvey? He's going upstairs 53% of the time, highest among National League starters throwing at least 100 pitches. Harvey's high heat is getting results, too. He's getting hitters to swing and miss at his fastball nearly half of the time, putting him in a class all his own among MLB starters:

Highest fastball miss rate among MLB starters (min. 100 thrown)

 

Harvey has thrown his fastball, which screams towards home plate at an average of 94 MPH and has topped out at 98 MPH, about two-thirds of the time. Opponents are hitting .154 (4-for-26) against his heater, with a lone extra-base knock (congrats, Jimmy Rollins!) Eat your heart out, Verlander and Strasburg.