Sports Illustrated used TruMedia\'s analytics platform to breakdown the cut fastball.

1. BASEBALL
THIS IS
THE GAME
CHANGER
Is the cut fastball a magic pitch? It stymies
hitters, revives pitchers’ careers (hello,
Dan Haren) and has helped shift the
game’s balance from plate to mound. The
cutter: It’s not just for Mariano anymore
By Albert Chen
Photog ra ph b y ROBE RT SE A L E
T
here is a mysterious and magical
pitch that is changing baseball.
The pitch is saving careers,
perhaps even extending them,
turning journeymen into shut-
down relievers and restoring the dominance
of aging All-Stars. It’s the secret reason why
the game’s power balance has shifted from
the hitter to the pitcher. The pitch screams
toward the hitter with the speed and the
spin of a fastball and on a plane as flat as a
vinyl LP and then, just as it begins to cross
the plate, the ball darts like a badminton
birdie. “Your brain is telling you fastball,”
says Angels rightfielder Torii Hunter. “Then
BAC KG R O U N D BY T RU M ED I A N E T WO RK S
the ball breaks, and you’re done.”
The pitch is the cut fastball—the cutter—
and it has ignited a quiet revolution, from
Philadelphia, where the Phillies’ brother-
hood of aces has adopted it as its signature
weapon; to Texas, where an overachieving
Rangers pitching staff rode the pitch all the
J U N E 13 , 2011 | S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D | 43

2. THE CUTTER
way to last year’s World Series; to Anaheim, it,” says Cardinals rightfielder Lance Berk- ants, a few hours before the start of a game. trained eye it may look like a slider—the within the last 15 years, a handful of players relievers had effectiveness throwing it, that
where a veteran with a waning fastball has man. “Everyone knows about Mariano. Al Before he blew out his arm in 1977, 10 games difference is often subtle, though they have been throwing the pitch for genera- you saw the wide-scale adoption of it.”
taken the pitch and turned himself into a Leiter threw a cutter. Darren Oliver had a into his major league career, Gil Patterson are two clearly distinct pitches. A slider tions. (As referred to in the 2004 book The Patterson was the Blue Jays’ pitching
Cy Young candidate virtually overnight. “A little cutter, too. Now it’s like I can count was a can’t-miss Yankees prospect. (Carl breaks horizontally but also has downward Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, longtime coach when Halladay—after overhauling
couple years ago I didn’t even throw it, and on one hand the guys who don’t have it.” Yastrzemski called the righthander the best movement. A cutter moves mostly laterally. major league outfielder and Yale coach his delivery in the minors under the tute-
now I have no idea where I’d be without it,” “In the ’70s it was the slider,” says Indians young pitcher he’d ever seen.) Thirty-four “The difference is that the cutter is thrown Ethan Allen, in a 1953 instructional book, lage of minor league pitching coach Mel
says Angels righthander Dan Haren. “Every team president Mark Shapiro. “In the ’80s years later Patterson, now the A’s minor harder, it doesn’t have as much depth and wrote, “[A pitcher] threw a fastball that Queen—had his breakout 2002 season with
pitcher who throws it falls in love with it.” [pitching coach and manager ] Roger Craig league pitching coordinator—silver-haired the break is much shorter,” Patterson says. was unique because it slid or broke like Toronto and won the AL Cy Young a year
The pitch is not only why the Yankees’ came up with a split-finger fastball, and then and trim at 55—can still bring it. When he “If someone’s throwing [his fastball] at 90, a curve. It was somewhat like a fastball, later. The pitcher who finished second in the
Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer ever, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling took off throws a hard four-seam fastball into the their slider should be at 82. Their cutter but he threw over the side of the index voting that year was White Sox righthander
GA RY A . VA S Q U E Z / USPRE SS W IRE (H A REN); J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H
but also why the reigning NL Cy Young with it. Now it’s the cutter.” wall—thwack!—heads turn in the stands. should be at 86, about a four-mile-per-hour finger to a greater extent. This off-center Esteban Loaiza, then a 31-year-old jour-
Award winner, Roy Halladay, is having one A pitch that didn’t exist in the mainstream “You can teach people a cutter much easier difference.” pressure caused the break.”) Rivera, who neyman who a year earlier, as a struggling
of his most dominant seasons, at age 34. baseball lexicon two decades ago has become than you can a curveball and a slider and Pat terson t h row s a not her pitch— stumbled upon the pitch while warming Blue Jay, learned the cutter from Patterson.
The pitch is why virtual unknowns such as the It Pitch, the most devastating weapon in a major league diabolical sinker,” Patter- thwack!—and says, “I’d love to see what up before a game in 1997, made the cutter Loaiza perfected it under White Sox pitch-
Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin, St. Louis’s Jaime the game. And now pitchers and hitters are son says in between throws. He holds the Goose Gossage’s velocity was on his slider. famous, though it didn’t lead immediately ing coach Don Cooper, another well-known
(H A L L A DAY ); TO N Y D E JA K /A P (B E C K E T T )
Garcia and Tampa Bay’s James Shields are racing to unlock the mystery of the cutter. baseball with a classic four-seam fastball You look back at guys like Lee Smith, Bret to a wave of imitators. “Mariano’s a Hall proponent of the cutter. “[Loaiza] threw
blooming into All-Stars—and All-Stars such grip, then moves his grip slightly off cen- Saberhagen, Steve Busby, Dave Stieb, and of Famer mainly due to that one pitch, and the slider, and it was too big and loopy,”
T
as Haren, Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels and he cutter guru, the man who helped ter, squeezes his middle finger on the ball they threw their sliders pretty hard. Maybe I think people have viewed his mastery says Patterson. “We worked on shortening
B R A D M A N G IN (RI V ER A)
Boston’s Josh Beckett are as good as, or bet- Halladay master his most devastat- until it turns pink, and winds up and fires today those are cutters.” as a spectacular skill that he alone has,” the slider, and he picked the cutter up in
ter than, ever. ing pitch, is firing baseballs at a sign another pitch that scuds left just before it No one knows who threw the first cut- says Rangers assistant general manager two side sessions.” Halladay learned his
“When I broke in [in 1999], I could count on the outfield wall at San Jose Municipal hits the wall. ter. But though the term cut fastball only Thad Levine. “It wasn’t until later, when cutter the same way. “When Doc lowered
on one hand the number of guys who threw Stadium, home of the Class A San Jose Gi- This is the cutter, though to the un- became part of the baseball vernacular middle-of-the-rotation starters and normal his arm angle, he created the movement on
THE HEAT INDEX THE MASTER THE VETERANS
What makes a good cutter so effective is its late movement—it looks like a fastball,
then darts for the outer reaches of the strike zone or off the plate. That effectiveness
can be tracked with a heat map, a color-coded graphic that shows how productive
batters are when a pitch hits a certain spot. Areas in dark red are hitter-friendly, with
pitches there belted at a .500 clip; dark blue represents a batting average of .100; green
areas are around .300. The following pages show cutter heat maps for seven pitchers
who rely heavily on the pitch. (Pitch frequency data from Fangraphs.com.)
Heat graphs and data analysis provided by TruMedia Networks.
Visit BaseballAnalytics.org for more.
AVERAGE MAJOR MARIANO RIVERA DAN HAREN ROY HALLADAY JOSH BECKETT
LEAGUE PITCHER Yankees Angels Phillies Red Sox
When batters put the typical big No one throws the cutter more (89% His cutter usage has jumped to 41.9% No starter has thrown the cutter After a subpar 2010 season, he’s
league hurler’s cutter in play they hit of his pitches this season); since this season, from 27.2% last year, more often this season (45.2% of his throwing the cutter more than ever
.254, or 40 points below the overall the ’08 season the batting average and opposing batters are hitting .192 pitches); he holds batters to a .246 (17.1%) and has the best overall batting
average on balls put in play. against his cutter is .186. against it. average when he throws it. average against (.188) of his career.
44 | S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D | J U N E 13 , 2011 J U N E 13 , 2011 | S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D | 45

3. THE CUTTER
his pitches,” says Patterson. “We shortened ballooned to 24 at week’s end. “The major- Mike Scioscia when I got here about what
his slider because it was too big—that’s how ity of our pitchers are throwing cutters, or kind of pitcher I was,” says the 30-year-old, a
his cutter came about.” working on them,” says Levine of the Rang- three-time All-Star with the A’s and D-Backs
Patterson is now watching his for- ers’ staff, which has undergone a stunning who was 5–3 with the AL’s fourth-best ERA
mer student attain a higher plane in his turnaround in recent seasons. “Five years (2.29) and second-best WHIP (0.94) through
14th season, as he relies more on his cutter: ago, you read advance reports and five per- Sunday. “I said I was going to have to be a
Five seasons ago Halladay was throwing it cent of guys had cutters in their repertoire. guy that relied on movement and keeping
19.3% of the time, and so far this season— Now, it’s 70 percent to 80 percent. The pitch hitters off balance. In my Oakland days I was
as he has the highest strikeout rate of his is in almost every scouting report now.” a fastball-split guy, but I don’t throw hard
career (8.9) and leads the majors in innings anymore. I don’t blow anyone away anymore.
T
(981⁄3), complete games (4), walk rate (1.9), he Cy Young candidate, the pitcher who And no one wants to throw 89, 90 and try to
and wins (8)—Halladay is firing more cut- turned to the cutter out of despera- spot that down and away. That’s dangerous.”
ters (45.2% of his pitches, a major league tion, is sitting at his locker at Angel Like Boston’s Josh Beckett this season,
high among starters) and fewer fastballs Stadium, thinking back to the moment he Haren is a veteran who, in his 30s, has trans-
(25.4%) than ever. His rotation mates are felt his career slipping away. “Some guys formed himself into a more effective pitcher.
following his lead: Almost one out of every can be stubborn and think their stuff is Haren had fooled around with a cutter as a
four pitches thrown by a Phillies starter still good enough and not make changes, young pitcher—“I remember guys laughing at
this season has been a cutter. but before you know it, they’re out of the it because it was terrible,” he says—but with
Cutter love is sweeping across baseball. game,” says Haren, who struggled with the the Angels he committed to the pitch, grip-
In 2005 five major league starters threw Diamondbacks early last season and was ping the ball “like a slider, with pressure on
the cutter more than 15% of the time; last dealt to the Angels in July. the middle finger,” and over time he counted
year 14 did; this season, that number had “I remember going in to talk to [manager] on it more in games. “The key was just really
THE RISING STARS
JOSH TOMLIN MIKE ADAMS JAMES SHIELDS C H U C K C R OW/ T H E P L A IN D E A L ER / L A N D OV ( TO M L IN); J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H (A DA M S); C H RIS O ’ M E A R A /A P (SHIEL DS)
Indians Padres Rays
In his 23 career starts he’s thrown the A pitch that looks like a fastball but is He has always featured the cutter
cutter 26.1% of the time; opponents’ actually a lethal cutter has helped him heavily, but this year it’s more effective:
batting average against that pitch become one of the game’s best setup A .174 batting average against
this season is .213. men. (Fastball heat map shown.) compared with a .307 last season.
46 | S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D | J U N E 13 , 2011

4. THE CUTTER
believing in it,” says the righthander, who, seams as it spins. And once you see the rotation Adams grips his cutter with the tips of his
after throwing the pitch a little more than on it, you react a certain way. The good cutters, index and middle fingers hugging the seam
a quarter of the time last year, has seen his like Rivera’s, rotate like a four-seamer—you of the ball. (“There’s some days that I’m just
cutter usage skyrocket to 41.9% this season. don’t see the red dot, you don’t know it’s going squeezing the heck out of the ball, and some-
“Now I try to throw it right down the middle to come in on you until it’s too late.” times the harder I squeeze, the more cut I get,”
and trust that it’s going to move to the outer Facing Rivera’s cutter, Pennington says, “I’ve he says. “I have my fingers there so I can really
part. The times I pull it out for a ball are seen the red dot once,” as if he’d seen Bigfoot. pull that seam down and get the movement.”)
times that I’m not trusting it.” Several closers—from the A’s Andrew Adams—who began throwing the cutter in
A righthanded batter facing Haren’s cutter
FIVE YEARS AGO A HANDFUL OF
watches it tail away from him. A lefthander
sees the ball come inside—he swings think-
PITCHERS THREW THE CUTTER. NOW,
ing the ball will hit the barrel of the bat, while
the pitch veers toward the handle. “Guys like
SAYS ONE EXEC, “IT’S IN ALMOST
Haren that used to throw 94 but are now
throwing 90, 91, they throw a cutter because
it makes the 91-mph fastball seem like 94,”
says A’s shortstop Cliff Pennington. “Haren’s
is just so hard to pick up and distinguish
EVERY SCOUTING REPORT.”
from his slider—it’s got less break but the 2008 and who in a month could be
velo is harder, so you see fastball and you one of the most sought-after players
swing and it breaks enough to miss. If you at the trade deadline if the last-place
see the spin on it and you think breaking Padres make him available—now has
ball, then you’re late.” so much faith in the pitch that he
Everyone on the Angels’ staff wants doesn’t bother with scouting reports.
Haren’s cutter, from 32-year-old journey- “I know what my strengths are. If
man Joel Piniero (“It just doesn’t work for you think you can hit my cutter, then
me,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s my arm good luck,” he says. “You might have
angle, release point, or because I don’t have a scouting report that says, this guy
big hands—I’m going to keep searching for can hit a fastball, a slider or a cutter,
it”) to 28-year-old ace Jered Weaver, who, but whose cutter was it? It may have
despite already having four above-average been someone with a bad cutter.”
pitches in his arsenal, has spent the last few Not all cutters are created equal,
months trying to conquer it. “It would just be of course. Not long ago a pitcher
another weapon, something else for guys to with an unspectacular cutter could
think about,” says Weaver. “I’ve been trying it CUTTING EDGE Bailey (another of Pat- fool hitters simply because of the surprise
since spring training, playing around with it Patterson (left) terson’s disciples) to factor. “Now everybody throws a cutter,
has taught
with [Haren]. But I’m going to keep trying.” the cutter for the Giants’ Brian Wil- and the more they throw them, the better
Haren’s advice to Weaver: Stay away years; he helped son to the Rays’ Kyle you can make adjustments,” says Berkman.
Halladay refine
from it. “Weaver wants one bad,” he says. the pitch that
Farnsworth—are de- “Your brain learns how to lay off the tough
“We’ll be playing catch and he’ll try to throw has become his ploying the cutter as a ones that are in on you. Some are still good
one, and it’ll be terrible. I tell Jered this: signature. primary pitch, but the and unhittable, but some are not so good.”
It’s not for everyone. It can mess up your man most likely to con- The legion of pitchers throwing the cut-
other pitches—you can lose your feel for tinue Rivera’s cutter legacy is, of all people, a ter will grow. But baseball is cyclical, and
the pitch. You can lose your grip on your 32-year-old setup man who has never been from both hitters and pitchers there will
curveball. You can start to lose velocity on a closer: the Padres’ Mike Adams. “Anyone be adjustments and counter-adjustments.
your fastball. Jered’s stuff is already good comparing my cutter to [Rivera’s] is doing Someday the balance of power will shift
enough. He doesn’t need it. When he’s old his an injustice,” Adams says, but opposing back to the hitters. And someday another
like me, he’ll need it.” hitters, who have hit .164 against him over pitch will define another generation of pitch-
the last three seasons (the lowest batting ers. “You always want to stay ahead of the
R
ivera’s cutter is one of the most unhit- average against of any reliever in baseball), curve,” says Haren, “but I don’t know how
table pitches in the history of the game. would disagree. According to an advanced many pitches are left. I hope I don’t have to
“You can’t see the spin on it,” says Berk- metric that ranks the value and effectiveness reinvent myself again.”
man, a switch-hitter who bats lefthanded of every pitch, Adams’s cutter (which simi- The pitchers who have mastered the cutter
against the righty Rivera. “A four-seam fast- lar to Rivera’s spins toward the hitter like a will ride it as long as they can. “Earlier in
ball rotates a certain way. And anything that’s four-seamer) over this season has been the my career I always said I wanted to throw a
MI C H A EL Z AGA RIS
going to come in on you, like a slider or a cutter, single most devastating cutter thrown by any split,” says Adams. “Now I know I was never
is going to spin a certain way—you see a red reliever—even more effective a split guy. I’m a cutter guy.
dot on the ball as it’s coming at you from the than Rivera’s. SI on Twitter I’ve found who I am.” ±
Follow @SI_JonHeyman and
@JPosnanski for their up-to-
48 | S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D | J U N E 13 , 2011 the-minute baseball thoughts.