On Sunday night, Camilo Doval stepped to the mound with out his regular gentle present. He confirmed the vary of his recreation instantly – after putting out the primary two batters he confronted, he walked Greg Jones, who promptly stole each second and third. Then Nolan Jones ripped a scorching line drive to heart for a triple, Elehuris Montero stroked a line drive single, and two runs had scored similar to that. To make issues worse, this wasn’t even in opposition to the Rockies – it was in opposition to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes.
It’s arduous to wrap your head round Doval’s sudden fall from ace nearer to minor leaguer. He debuted within the magical 2021 season, picked up closing duties on the tail finish of that yr, and appeared like top-of-the-line relievers within the sport virtually instantly. In 2022 and ’23, he pitched to a 2.73 ERA and a couple of.87 FIP. He was wild at instances, overpowering at others, and unattainable to sq. up in each iteration. When you might have a 100 mph cutter and a decent 90 mph slider to throw off of it, you don’t want a lot else. He was fifth in baseball in saves, ninth in reliever WAR, tenth in innings pitched amongst relievers; in different phrases, he was a one-man back-of-the-bullpen for the Giants.
One factor all the time bothered me about Doval, even when he was dominating the opposition for the final two years: His cutter doesn’t reduce appropriately. That sounds nonsensical, or at finest like a weak nitpick. However right here, check out his cutter as in comparison with Emmanuel Clase’s best-in-class providing, utilizing our pitch-type splits:
A Story of Two Cutters
| Pitcher | Velo (mph) | HMov (in) | ZMov (in) | ZMov (ex. grav) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emmanuel Clase | 100.2 | 1.8 | 6.9 | -16.0 |
| Camilo Doval | 99.5 | -4.3 | 6.6 | -16.4 |
The “reduce” in a cutter refers to glove-side motion. A superb cutter appears like a fastball out of the hand earlier than the spin takes over; then it veers sharply away from the four-seam path that hitters have spent their entire lives monitoring. It’s not only a matter of how in a different way formed the cutter is from the remainder of a given pitcher’s arsenal – simply ask Mariano Rivera. As an alternative, it’s extra about defying the mind patterns batters have constructed up over a long time of enjoying baseball. That’s simply not the place a fastball ought to go, and so hitters both swing fruitlessly over it or, within the case of opposite-handed batters, find yourself breaking their bats when the pitch bores in on their arms.
Doval’s cutter doesn’t do this. Clase’s breaks two inches towards his glove aspect, in on lefties; Doval’s stays arm aspect. There’s a six-inch hole between the 2. Consider it this fashion: 4-seamers thrown by righties this yr have damaged about two inches farther towards righties than Doval’s cutter – and eight inches farther than Clase’s cutter. Clase’s is fooling folks; Doval’s appears like a four-seamer turned down just a few notches.
This comparability is unfair to Doval, after all, as a result of Clase is the very best reliever on the earth. However even should you evaluate Doval to everybody who throws cutters, he stands out in a nasty means. This yr, 35 pitchers have thrown at the least 50 arduous cutters (92+ mph); Doval’s arm-side motion is by far probably the most. The one one inside three inches of him is teammate Sean Hjelle, and Hjelle’s pitches are all weird, due to his 6’11” body and unorthodox supply. To make issues worse, Doval has misplaced some vertical motion on his pitch this yr. It was some of the back-spinning cutters on the market, however he’s inducing two inches much less vertical break this yr, which suggests it’s type of a two-seamer that doesn’t run.
That marginal distinction positively issues – each of our pitch fashions have gone from contemplating the cutter a plus pitch to a below-average one, and Baseball Prospectus’s StuffPro mannequin agrees. However none of those fashions ever liked the pitch. PitchingBot thinks that even earlier than this yr, Doval’s cutter was a 53 general on the 20-80 scale. Stuff+ (utilizing Pitching+, its estimation of stuff plus command) gave it a 97. Clase’s cutter is a 65 or a 111, relying on which mannequin you’d choose. Doval’s supposed “go-to pitch” has been unhealthy all alongside, so we’re going want a greater rationalization for why the outcomes have fallen off so arduous this yr.
The key of Doval’s recreation is that he’s not likely a cutter-first pitcher regardless of the eye-popping velocity. Positive, he throws numerous cutters – however he doesn’t throw numerous cutters for a cutter-first pitcher. He throws his slider half the time, actually, and mixes in 15% sinkers. In his profession, his cutter has produced the worst outcomes of any of his three main pitches. It doesn’t miss many bats. It permits loud contact, and loads of line drives. It induces a surprisingly low chase charge – solely 20.3% for his profession. Over the previous 4 seasons, 46 pitchers have thrown 500 or extra cutters; Doval’s chase charge is the second lowest in that group. Our estimation of pitch values has the cutter three runs beneath common for his profession; Statcast’s measure, which takes base/out state into consideration the place ours doesn’t, has it at two runs above common. For reference, we expect his slider has been 22 runs higher than common, and Statcast is much more optimistic, at 32 runs.
Have a look at Doval’s pitch utilization by rely, and it’s clear that he is aware of what he’s finest at. He throws his slider extra regularly than another pitch kind in each rely aside from 0-0, 3-0, and 3-1. The additional fastballs on the primary pitch are probably about Doval attempting to get forward in opposition to passive opponents. His 3-0 and 3-1 pitch choice is all about avoiding walks in opposition to batters who know he’s wild. However even on 2-0, he’d quite throw a slider than a cutter, as a result of it’s his finest pitch by a mile.
That will get to what I feel has doomed Doval this yr. He’s by no means had nice slider command, nevertheless it’s all the time been ok to get by. It’s arduous sufficient and dips sufficient that batters equipped for his velocity principally simply swing over it each time. My finest comparability is Ryan Helsley’s slider, and the 2 have been equally overpowering as putaway pitches as a result of they, by way of velocity, aren’t overpowering; 89 mph pitches simply aren’t alleged to dip like that. As a degree of comparability, Doval’s slider sinks six inches greater than Kyle Hendricks’s similar-velo sinker. It appears like an optical phantasm each on digicam and to hitters.
That’s nice when Doval lives across the strike zone, as a result of it leaves hitters with few good choices. However he’s more and more failing to hit the mark together with his early-count sliders. I outline “across the plate” as the guts and shadow zones – I exploit these Baseball Savant assault zones fairly regularly, however right here’s a refresher should you’re new right here. Early within the rely (0-0, 0-1, 1-0, and 1-1), Doval used to find his slider across the plate roughly two thirds of the time. However he’s fully misplaced the plot, and the plate, this yr. He’s leaving every part down, and too far to his glove aspect, away to righty batters. If you happen to ignore my fuzzy zone definition and as an alternative simply have a look at whether or not he hits the rulebook strike zone, it’s even worse:
Slider Zone Fee, Early Counts
| 12 months | Round-Plate% | Zone% |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 65.3% | 45.8% |
| 2022 | 65.6% | 45.7% |
| 2023 | 59.3% | 39.4% |
| 2024 | 49.8% | 32.3% |
Word: Across the plate means within the coronary heart or shadow zones. Early within the rely means 0-0, 0-1, 1-0, and 1-1.
The results of that is straight ahead: Doval has to choose between two unhealthy choices. He can both maintain throwing sliders and fall behind within the rely too regularly, or he can problem hitters together with his so-so cutter and danger getting shelled. He’s picked a combination of the 2 this yr. His 14.3% stroll charge is by far a profession excessive, and opponents are completely tattooing his cutter when he assaults with it early within the rely.
This isn’t some deep secret. Bob Melvin recognized two causes Doval bought optioned to the minors: strike throwing and time to the plate. Time to the plate has been a problem for him because the stolen base explosion of 2023; Statcast calculates base advances prevented by pitchers, and Doval is the second-worst reliever in baseball in the case of that talent. It’s actually not an enormous difficulty, as a result of loads of these runners would get free advances through his walks anyway, and he nonetheless strikes out a ton of batters. However it’s a transparent place to enhance, and the way in which to enhance there may be apparent: Simply shorten the time it takes to ship the ball.
Far much less apparent is how Doval will regain his slider command. If I had a easy repair that I may inform you right here, I wouldn’t be writing for FanGraphs; I’d be accumulating ludicrously massive consulting charges from main league groups to make their relievers higher. Watching his mechanics didn’t assist me out, both. Right here’s a slider from 2023:
And one from 2024:
They’re very related sliders, solely he left this yr’s pitch to date inside that even swing-happy Miguel Rojas didn’t supply at it. If you happen to’re enthusiastic about going all Zapruder on these two deliveries, listed below are the video hyperlinks — the first clip and the second one — however I can’t discern any mechanical flaws which have abruptly cropped up. He does appear to be striding much less, and his extension is down this yr, so possibly that’s it? His launch level hasn’t modified that a lot, so I don’t suppose that’s an apparent perpetrator, nevertheless it’s at the least one thing that has modified yr over yr. He’s simply lacking down much more, on the finish of the day.
Regardless of the trigger, the impact of this lack of command has compounded on Doval. He’s across the zone much less, so he’s getting behind within the rely extra regularly. Being behind within the rely extra regularly is especially unhealthy for his slider-dominant strategy; as we lined earlier, his go-to pitch in 2-0 and 2-1 counts is his slider, and now he can’t find it. His cutter has by no means been the type of pitch he can throw with impunity to get again into the rely, so at the same time as he’s struggled to hit the zone, he’s continued to spin sliders in hitters’ counts.
The repair is so simple as it’s difficult: Simply begin finding the pitch higher. And regardless of his terrible numbers this yr, Doval isn’t that distant from being proper. He’s nonetheless lacking bats at a colossal charge; his 15.4% swinging strike charge is the very best of his profession and high 20 throughout all relievers. He’s getting a pile of grounders, too, notably in opposition to his slider. His points all stem from what occurs when he can’t get the slider over the plate. Repair that one devilishly troublesome drawback and he’ll be again to his previous self very quickly. The query is solely how lengthy it’s going to take to try this.
