Why so good? Joe Ryan's new pitches have a ton of movement
Joe Ryan was a solid starting pitcher for the Minnesota Twins last season. Through three starts this season, he looks dominant. His latest gem was at Yankee Stadium Thursday night when he struck out 10 and allowed just one run and three hits over seven innings.
Is it the natural progression of a young pitcher or is it something more? It's probably a bit of both, though the data MLB Network flashed on the screen Friday morning suggest that he's getting a lot more movement on his off-speed pitches compared to a year ago.
In 2023, Ryan has replaced his slider with a sweeper and he's gone with a splitter over a changeup and the results are incredible. His slider in 2022 averaged 3.1 inches of break, whereas his newfound sweeper averages a whopping 14.3 inches of break.
His changed averaged 29.1 inches of drop last year compared to 40.1 inches of drop on his newfound splitter.
The @Twins conquered the horrors of Yankee Stadium last night! 😱#MLBCentral | @markdero7 | #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/DANtE06L9P
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) April 14, 2023
It's unclear where MLB Network got its data, but according to Statcast Ryan has thrown 53 splitters this season with an average vertical drop of 38.6 inches. For context, Shohei Ohtani's splitter has averaged 30.3 inches of drop this season.
Last season, Twins reliever Cole Sands led the majors with an average of 39.1 inches of drop on his splitter, so what Ryan is doing with his new splitter isn't just impressive, it's world class.
More movement on his secondary pitches is a good explainer for why Ryan has been mostly dominant through 19 innings this season. It's a small sample size, but back-to-back 10-strikeout games and three very strong starts is encouraging for a team that hopes one or two starters can develop into high-end arms.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.