Patrick Corbin And declining velocity

[Ronin]

Fantasy Baseball: Is Patrick Corbin's declining velocity a concern? It's complicated

Patrick Corbin has never had a particularly good fastball. Even when he was able to dial it up to the 96-97 mph range, the results were never particularly great.

Opposing batters have hit .298 against his four-seam fastball and .301 against his sinker for his career, with ISOs allowed of .179 and .161. Even given the relatively low standards for fastballs around baseball, Corbin's has been especially whiff-averse, picking up a swinging strike on 6.2 percent of his four-seamers and 4.9 percent of his sinkers.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/b...declining-velocity-a-concern-its-complicated/

 

[Ronin]

OT:

Is Patrick Corbin’s Great Start Sustainable?
In every major statistical pitching category, Corbin ranks in the top five. Most impressive has been his ERA and WHIP, both career-highs.

It helps that Corbin has been a beneficiary of hitters increasingly striking out this year. In 2017, MLB hitters struck out at a previously record-high 21.6% of plate appearances. So far in 2018, the strikeout rate has increased to 22.3% of plate appearances. In 2017, Corbin averaged 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings. In 2018, Corbin has struck out three more batters per nine innings, averaging 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings thus far.

Although a slight uptick in strikeouts can be expected, it still does not explain Corbin’s sharp increase in strikeouts. Corbin’s contact percentage against (the percentage of contact made by hitters when swinging at all pitches) has dropped from 76.2% to 66.2%, but it also does not necessarily explain by itself why Corbin is striking out more hitters.

http://thesportsquotient.com/mlb/2018/5/18/is-patrick-corbins-great-start-sustainable