The big reveal from Ben Brown’s first Spring Training start was an explosive new sinker that sat at 97 mph, got a little bit of drop compared to his four-seamer, and a whole lot of arm-side run compared to his four-seamer.
Brown said he’d added the pitch this offseason, which is one of those Spring Training aphorisms that you kinda want to see in action a whole lot before you draw any real conclusions (adding a new pitch is right up there with “best shape of his life” discourse). But it looked the part in his first start – and he threw it more than any other pitch – and then he did it again in his second spring outing this weekend.
This time around, Ben Brown threw the pitch just 5 times out of his 27 pitches, but it generated two called strikes and a whiff. The sample is as small as it gets, but a 60% CSW on a pitch still makes me chuckle. And the fact that he was throwing it 98 mph just makes me smile. Oh, and having it paired with the four-seamer makes it all the more difficult to predict the curveball and sit/spit on it:
More than that, it makes me heartened to see the degree to which he’s confidently firing a new pitch in the strike zone in a way that he hasn’t yet been able to make the changeup work (late last year he switched to a kick-change-style, so we’ll see if that eventually takes root). Most guys could pick up a new pitch and throw it in a bullpen and raise the question about whether it might be usable. But in real game action? Against a live batter?
That’s the real thing about adding a new pitch, as described by Phil Maton in a piece at the Sun-Times, because he’s been working on a kick-change of his own:
“Maton’s latest project is adding a changeup to his repertoire. It isn’t guaranteed to be successful, and he knows that. Plenty of pitchers enter spring training every year thinking they’ve unlocked a new off-speed pitch, only to realize it doesn’t work nearly as well when they’re built up to full velocity ….
For Maton, it’s still a work in progress. When he gets the seam orientation right, it comes out of his unique release point looking like ‘the sickest pitch in baseball,’ he said. But when he doesn’t, it spins out like a hanging slider.
‘I don’t really want to go in a game in a big situation, throw that pitch, hope it’s the strikeout one and throw the bad one,’ he said.”
The consistence of execution with a new pitch. The confidence and conviction to throw it in big spots, in all counts. These are the real questions, and they can be only partially answered in Spring Training outings, even when the new pitch looks as good as Ben Brown’s sinker. He’s certainly throwing it at full velocity, though. (OR WHAT IF HE ISN’T?!?!?)
I can’t wait to continue tracking this throughout the spring, because, in Ben Brown’s case, we know that it could be the differentiator between him being a big league reliever and a big league starter. He has a plus four-seamer and a plus curveball. But being a true two-pitch starter in the big leagues means your command and execution have to be truly elite, otherwise you’re going to notch a lot of strikeouts … but you’re gonna get hammered when you aren’t getting the strikeout. And while you’d probably still rather he had an off-speed offering at a third different velocity tier, having two fastballs that move very differently might still be enough to keep hitters on their toes.
David Laurila at FanGraphs spoke with Ben Brown more on his sinker, which was developed with some help from an unlikely source:
“Clay Holmes introduced me to the grip,” Brown said of the New York Mets right-hander who threw the fifth-highest percentage of sinkers among qualified pitchers last season. “His sinker is a lot different than mine, but he’s a really bright baseball mind. He just does a really good job of communicating and teaching. He’s one heck of a coach as well as a player. One thing he did is help me to kill spin efficiency.”
Asked how his sinker differs from Holmes’, Brown responded much as I thought he might. Again, the 2024 article described him as analytically inclined.
“He’s a little more seam-shifted,” said Brown. “He’s throwing like -2 [vertical] and 20 [horizontal] sinkers. The way that he throws — different arm angle, a supinator — he’s able to manipulate the ball differently than I am. Clay’s ability to manipulate the baseball is actually better than anything I’ve ever seen. So yeah, I’m getting more ride than he is — a lot more ride — as well as a little bit less run. My best bullet the other day was seven [vertical], 17 [horizontal]. Hopefully my four-seam is the exact opposite of that. That’s the goal, to get a good distinction between the two pitches.”
That whole article is a great read if you want to get a little deeper into pitch design. For example, it’s fascinating to know that Holmes’ grip could help Brown unlock a COMPLETELY different kind of sinker than the one Holmes throws. It’s also good to hear about how Brown is working to improve his four-seamer, too, after it gave up so much hard contact last year (some of which was about being a two-pitch guy, but some of which was about the pitch execution, itself).
Where this all goes, of course, remains to be seen. The Cubs are stretching Ben Brown out, and, at present, he’s probably behind six-ish other starting pitchers for big league starts (and it could be seven by the time Justin Steele returns). But injuries happen, of course, and the Cubs may also want to try to space out the starting five with extra rest days. That could mean some shuttling for Brown, who has an option year remaining, until something more permanent opens up in the rotation. Or later in the year, if he’s just too good to not use, in the bullpen.
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