Every baseball off-season has a topic du jour among baseball analysts. We’ve seen pulled flyballs, high line drives, spin rate, and others have their moment in the sun. MLB’s institution of the Hawk-Eye platform in place of Trackman for the 2020 season has given us the latest topic- spin mirroring for pitchers, and generally the way spin works for pitchers among different pitches. Let’s talk about that today, and which Cardinals best spin certain pitch sequences.
First, we should explain what we’re talking about. Think of the face of the ball as it exits the pitcher’s hand like the face of a clock.