It's still risky to put significant stock into early-season skills, especially aggregate measures like strikeouts and walks. But looking into the components that drive them can be a helpful early-season exercise, since they represent larger sample sizes.
These starting pitchers have increased their swinging strike rates the most from 2023 to 2024 (min 20 IP each season):
2023 | 2024 | Δ | |||||||||
Name | Lg | Tm | SwK% | FpK% | Ball% | SwK% | FpK% | Ball% | SwK% | FpK% | Ball% |
Ryan Feltner | NL | COL | 8.3% | 65% | 37% | 13.3% | 66% | 33% | 5.0% | 1% | -3% |
Jack Flaherty | AL | DET | 10.8% | 59% | 39% | 15.0% | 63% | 34% | 4.2% | 4% | -5% |
Jordan Wicks | NL | CHC | 10.0% | 54% | 38% | 13.9% | 63% | 36% | 3.9% | 9% | -2% |
Nathan Eovaldi | AL | TEX | 11.5% | 60% | 37% | 15.1% | 61% | 35% | 3.6% | 1% | -2% |
Ranger Suárez | NL | PHI | 9.4% | 62% | 37% | 11.9% | 61% | 34% | 2.5% | -1% | -3% |
Graham Ashcraft | NL | CIN | 9.6% | 60% | 35% | 12.0% | 59% | 35% | 2.4% | -1% | 0% |
Jake Irvin | NL | WAS |
Almost!
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