TAA 16 - Pitch Tunneling and Arsenal Construction

The Approach Angle

Nate Schwartz (@_nateschwartz) and Kyle Bland (@blandalytics) discuss pitch tunnels and their impact on arsenal construction.

The podcast starts by talking about what a pitch tunnel is and why it can be effective against all types of hitters (including Jordan Walker, who Nate has to give a mention to after the Home Run Derby win). They talk about how release points and movement can confuse a hitter in terms of pitch recognition and affect their decision window when it comes to making a swing. Then, they talk about all of the different ways that the public has attempted to quantify tunneling. The next segment discusses arsenal construction -- like what makes pitches good tunnel partners and how bridge pitches can be effective. Additionally, they talk about why it can be useful to have pitches that don't tunnel with one another. Finally, they close with players that have interesting tunnels & mixes: Davis Martin, Bryan Woo, Nolan McLean, and Paul Skenes.

Articles mentioned: The Importance of Release Point Consistency, Daniel Schwartz; Introducing Pitch Tunnels, Baseball Prospectus; 
Quantifying Arsenal Effects: A New Paradigm in Pitching Models, Driveline Baseball; The Science of Pitch Tunneling, Maxwell Resnick; Introducing BP's New Arsenal Metrics, Stephen Sutton-Brown

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