Two articles in, you know how this works. We grade the pitch, we sort by quality, we pull out some of the names with outlier pitch-design traits.
Sinkers, one can argue, are the hardest of the three pitch types to model so far. Sliders are scored on whiff rate and the model has plenty of that signal to work with. Four-seamers are scored on whiff and the correlative inputs that produce whiff such as velocity, ride and approach angle. Sinkers, though, aren't whiff generators. They're a means to an end, designed to induce ground balls and weak contact in most cases.
Our sinker Stuff+ model is more shape-driven and less outcome-driven than some others. Our model rewards outlier shapes, as well as velocity. We're looking for arm-side run, steep VAAs, and a performance record that stands out in a pool of sinkers and two-seam fastballs that hardly catch headlines. The …