Michael Wacha is good again

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Big Amoco Sign
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Michael Wacha is good again

Post by Big Amoco Sign »

Fangraphs has Wacha's changeup as the best for its pitch value in all of baseball. It's significantly better than Aaron Nola's who has a great changeup by his own right. It's now a bonafied strikeout pitch again.

His cutter is the second to Kluber's in all of baseball.

Is Michael Wacha officially "back?"

Good article on him here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/michael ... -its-2013/

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MAGA
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by MAGA »

He is back.

*knocks on scapula*

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wart57
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by wart57 »

Way to go Amoco - I bet you jinxed him.

Socnorb11
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by Socnorb11 »

He's beyond back.

He was never this good, was he?

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thrill
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by thrill »

My phone still autocorrects his name to WACHA because of the '13 playoffs. He was this good, once.

Fat Strat
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by Fat Strat »

Socnorb11 wrote:He's beyond back.

He was never this good, was he?
He seemed like he was this good.

But, the point, to me, is that Wacha is not the same pitcher he was whenever he used to be good. His change hasn't *ahem* changed. But, that cutter is fairly new and it appears to be a game *ahem* changer. I know that PitchFX or whatever Fangraphs is using these days has Wacha throwing a cutter only slightly more often than in previous years but Wacha himself has indicated it's something relatively new this season. So, not sure what to make of that. Regardless, it's incredibly effective in tandem with the change. There's also some peripheral stuff that might go south on Wacha, but I personally think he's going to beat the peripherals.

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haltz
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by haltz »

His change hasn't *ahem* changed.
Apparently there is reason to think that his changeup is legitimately more deceptive this year. The release point stuff in that article is interesting.

Code: Select all

Michael Wacha’s Release Point Differences From Fastball
Season	Cutter	Changeup	Curveball
  2013	3.8 in.	3.3 in.	1.0 in.
  2014	5.3 in.	5.0 in.	4.3 in.
  2015	5.6 in.	2.9 in.	3.1 in.
  2016	4.7 in.	3.1 in.	3.8 in.
  2017	3.4 in.	1.2 in.	2.4 in.
  2018	2.6 in.	0.6 in.	2.0 in.

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Popeye_Card
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by Popeye_Card »

If he can maintain such a consistent release point between fastball/cutter/change, that's really hard to adjust to as a hitter. Looks like the exact same pitch coming in, but at 3 different speeds and 3 different movements.

dmarx114
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by dmarx114 »

The Cubs have absolutely owned him. Friday night will be a good test.

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Kincaid
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Re: Michael Wacha is good again

Post by Kincaid »

Wacha has thrown his cutter almost since he came up, he's just never been all that comfortable with it (same with his curveball). I think what he was saying is new this year is that it's the first time he's gone into a season with a good feel for all four pitches and had full confidence in all of them.

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