CJ Garcia
Sometimes overlooked amongst all the mayhem of this offseason was the acquisition of Blake Snell. Snell is one of seven players in Major League Baseball history to win the Cy Young Award in both the National League and American League, joining the likes of Pedro Martinez, Roy Halladay, Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer, and Roger Clemens.
Blake Snell is a swing-and-miss machine. Amongst pitchers with a minimum of 1000 IP, Blake Snell is 1st in MLB HISTORY in K/9 with 11.2 K/9. Snell has been improving as he has matured as a pitcher, and just last season, he set a career-high in average fastball velocity (95.9 MPH) in his age 31 season. His high swing and miss rates are shown below:
- 31.6 Chase% (81st percentile)
- 37.7 Whiff% (98th percentile)
- 34.7 K% (98th percentile)
- 34.0 CSW% (1st in MLB)
Along with being arguably the pitcher with the best swing and miss in the sport, Snell has started to utilize his arsenal more effectively and has become a master at limiting hard contact.
Blake Snell was in the 99th percentile in Hard Hit% last season at 28.9%! A big reason he’s been able to limit hard contact has been because of the zones Blake Snell has decided to attack more in the past two seasons.
From 2022 to his Cy Young campaign in 2023, his pitch usage to his glove side (gLoc%) increased by 10% and increased by 3% more in 2024. From 2023-2024, Blake Snell showcased an 18% increase in throwing pitches high in the zone (hiLoc%), which seems to contribute to his Flyball% increasing by 14% along with having the lowest hard hit rate of his career, as I stated earlier.
Snell has one of the most elite arsenals in the sport in terms of quality of stuff. His numbers are as follows:
- 116 Fastball Stuff+
- 106 Slider Stuff+
- 148 Curveball Stuff+
- 110 Changeup Stuff+
Blake Snell dominated the second half with a 1.45 ERA in 68.1 IP with an opponent batting average of .133, which certainly helped his case and getting his first big contract at 5yrs/$182 million. Blake Snell has shown strides in his ability as he’s utilized more zones and trusts the chase that his top-shelf stuff creates.
Snell is becoming smarter as a pitcher, which is instilled in him coming up as a Tampa Bay Ray. Perhaps the Dodgers can unlock even more out of Blake Snell as he comes to LA as the ace of the staff.
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