Pinstripe Alley · May 9, 2016
How does spin rate affect different kinds of pitches?
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY SportsRecently, the spin rates of fastballs in the MLB have fallen under intense scrutiny, but how does spin affect other kinds of pitches?
With the implementation of Statcast, the sabermetrics community is beginning to pay attention to several new metrics. One of the most intriguing is spin rate, which measures how many times the baseball rotates per minute while traveling to the plate. We have known for a while that a higher fastball spin rate correlates with swinging strikes and fly balls. It was also revealed that MLB teams like the Astros consider the spin rate of curveballs when targeting pitchers, as shown by their acquisition of Collin McHugh.