NEW YORK — After getting roughed up by the Detroit Tigers for the second time in three games last week, New York Mets reliever Ryan Helsley made a pretty intriguing comment about the way he was executing on the mound. “It feels like guys are swinging at 100 like it’s 91 right now — when you feel like you have to be perfect out there, it’s not a good thing,” he said.
The two-time all-star closer has an 11.45 ERA in 14 games since being acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals ahead of the trade deadline and his struggles, at least in part, were connected to some pitch-tipping issues he and the Mets identified last month.
“We’ve played mostly teams in the hunt,” Helsley told reporters at the time, “and a lot of teams nowadays will have guys who look specifically for those things.”
So, when the New York Yankees identified a tell on Max Scherzer’s changeup and, rather overtly, relayed the coming pitch to the batter in Sunday’s 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, it was yet another example of how pervasive the search for tips is becoming.
“I feel like it’s become extremely popular throughout the league,” said Blue Jays first baseman Ty France, who noticed the way Cody Bellinger was flailing his arms and walked over to warn Scherzer. “Teams now are taking a lot of pride in it and doing their homework.”
Helped along, to some degree, by new tools to better scour video and motion-capture technology, they very much are, creating a growing challenge for pitchers to overcome. With on-field giveaways being considered fair game, the proliferation of ways to find tells and the spread of people with the know-how to gather and apply the info means the gamesmanship on that front is only going to increase, too.
“Something I’ve really recognized a lot this year is how in tune every team is with the pitch-tipping stuff,” said Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. “It’s not just the best organizations that have the technology, the resources to figure out what the tips are. It’s everybody now. …
“We’re all battling it every day trying to figure out, ‘OK, why did they take such a good swing on this pitch? Am I telegraphing? Or did they just take a good swing?’ You have to remember we’re not playing a bunch of Joe Schmoes. If you give anything away, these guys are going to be all over it. So making sure everybody’s got their stuff tucked away and hiding everything really well, that will probably pay big dividends, from what I’ve seen this year and how aggressive teams are trying to get those tips.”
In such an environment, hiding even the most subtle of differences in a delivery has never been harder for pitchers.
Organizations “have overlays, where you can run the same pitcher throwing different pitches all overlaid on each other and be like, which one’s different, which one’s popping,” added Hoffman. “That’s something that is used.”
The search for tells is, of course, a double-edged sword for clubs, as it may benefit their hitters but harms their pitchers.
Still, the advancements in hunting tips aren’t a single, catch-all explanation for why a pitcher might be struggling, as other advancements for hitters, such as the Trajekt pitching machines that pair video of a pitcher’s motion with the exact release point and movement pattern of his pitches, are also helping batters catch up.
Helsley, for instance, isn’t the only big-velo reliever dealt at the deadline to have struggled with his new club. Louis Varland has a 7.36 ERA in 16 games with the Blue Jays; Griffin Jax’s ERA is 6.00 in 15 games with the Tampa Bay Rays; Camilo Doval’s mark is 4.97 in 15 outings with the Yankees.
Bigger picture, since the July 31 trade deadline, the Yankees are tied for second in the majors with eight blown saves, with the Dodgers and Brewers right behind at seven and the Blue Jays, Cubs and Phillies in the next tier of teams with six. The Blue Jays’ 4.72 ERA over that span ranks 24th, behind a cluster of clubs that includes Seattle (19th at 4.45), the Yankees (20th at 4.51), the Mets (22nd at 4.52) and the Astros (23rd at 4.65).
Small-sample size caveats apply, of course, but the Dodgers getting walked off on consecutive days in Baltimore over the weekend, with Tanner Scott taking the loss one game and Blake Treinen the next, underlines how even wipeout stuff can suffer damage.
“Ninety-four is the new norm, you know what I mean?” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “There’s more information out there to get hitters prepared. It’s hard to do, but I think hitters have evolved with pitching. There are a lot of different ways to get prepared for it with machines and high-velocity reps and things like that. But I don’t know what to make of it because you feel pretty good about a guy throwing 100. Hitters have adjusted, for sure, so you still have to execute.”
The same applies for hitters at the plate, too, which leads to some push and pull for pitchers when it comes to handling a potential tell. Sometimes, what they’re doing to tip off opponents isn’t totally obvious and trying to plug one hole can inadvertently lead to the creation of another.
“That is the line we’re trying to dance over,” said Hoffman. “Even though they might know what’s coming, you still have to (have conviction) in what you’re doing. The big thing is doing the work pre-game so that once you go out into the game, it’s not really a thought, or get it cleaned up in some sense where it’s harder for them to figure out. Maybe you change your setup for one game just to throw them off. Because if they’re out there looking for one thing, and then your hands or your glove are in a different location, all of a sudden they don’t have what they thought they had, because the ball’s not where they thought it was.”
On-field awareness matters in a big way then, as pitchers, catchers and hitters need to recognize what’s happening in the moment, an integral but under-the-surface part of the competition between the mound and the batter’s box.
There’s more urgency there for relievers than starters, as they may be in high-leverage spots and don’t have an opportunity to pick up on a problem and adjust between innings. But regardless of role, the hunt for tips becoming increasingly effective is a new fact of life that all of them must face.
“Definitely,” said Hoffman. “Whether it’s big or small, we kind of all deal with it at some point throughout the year. It just seems like this year it’s been non-stop; if it’s not one guy, it’s the next guy. Some guys deal with it more frequently than others, depending on how they come set and all that stuff. But I definitely feel like this year it’s more.”
