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If it’s Thursday, it must be RC+ Statcast Stumper Day! We take a ballpark tradition and give it a modern twist. Our weekly feature pays homage to the Reds Scoreboard Stumper with a question for fans that involves newer stats and metrics. Post your guesses in the comments (no peeking!) Correct answers will be revealed here later in the day.
Enjoy and thanks for playing!
Lucas Sims is known to have impressive spin rates. In 2023, his slider ranked 8th in baseball (min 100 pitches) at 3002 rpm.
Which Reds pitcher and pitch ranked directly ahead of Sims in spin rate?
Extra credit: What former Reds pitcher and pitch ranked directly behind Sims?
From MLB’s Statcast glossary: A pitcher’s spin rate represents the rate of spin on a baseball after it is released, measured in revolutions per minute. The amount of spin on a pitch changes its trajectory, and the same pitch thrown at the same velocity will end up in a different place depending on how much it spins.
Aside from just spin rate, there are different types of spin and spin efficiency that all impact how the ball travels. For a quick read on this topic that helped me make a bit more sense of the spin rate leaderboard, see this article from Rapsodo.
Answer: Sam Moll and his sweeper (3049 rpm)
Extra credit: Robert Stephenson’s slider
A bit of a trick question given he joined the staff at the trade deadline, but Sam Moll and his sweeper ranked 7th in baseball with an average rpm of 3049. Moll’s sweeper was his most used pitch at 38% but was thrown far less often than in 2022 (55%) due to the introduction of a four seamer. Despite the average rpms dropping from 3182 in 2022, it remained just as effective, limiting hitters to a 0.239 wOBA and 0.249 xwOBA and creating a run value of 1.8 per 100 pitches, good for 10th best on the Reds last year.
Projections are not expecting Moll to match the strong results he turned in last year, and that’s not surprising given typical reliever volatility. But given the strength of his sweeper and ability to limit hard contact and get ground balls, it wouldn’t be a surprise to continue see him in medium-to-high leverage situations. Time will tell if he is able to recreate his success from last year once he gets healthy and rejoins the team.
Robert Stephenson’s slider checked in with the 9th highest spin rate in MLB in 2022 (min 100 pitches). Stephenson’s cutter also averaged nearly 100 rpms more than the next highest-spin fastball.
I don’t feel confident about this answer, but I’ll say Graham Ashcraft’s slider.
I’m stuck between two players on the bonus question. I’ll go with Robert Stephenson’s slider.
Lodolo and Sonny Gray.
Ashcraft and Gausman were also under consideration.