SPLITTERS!
Today I’ll be diving deep into my favorite pitch type in the game, the split-fingered fastball. Or is it a splitter? Or split change? Eh…we’ll get to that.
The splitter is known for its sharp, late movement and one of the most distinct (and often extreme) grips of any pitch in the game. To be honest, I’m interested by this pitch because it was my only non-fastball pitch when I played. I had trouble throwing anything with lateral movement, so I was happy to let gravity do the work for me with this one.
So today I’ve set out to evaluate the “State of the Split” in the majors and offer a few reasons why it should be thrown a bit more often.
Only 1.3% of pitches this season were classified as “Split-Fingers.” These pitches had an average velocity of 85.4 miles per hour. But there’s something fishy here. The fastest average splitter belongs to Jeurys Familia at 91.5 mph and slowest belongs to Tony Sipp at 79 mph. These speeds are generally in the same range as changeup speeds. In terms of usage, Hector Neris throws his a whopping 53% of the time, while some players like Sean Doolittle and Jeff Samardzija throw theirs on less than 2% of their pitches.
(I have found multiple instances of pitchers talking about their split-like pitches that don’t appear to be classified as such by FanGraphs, so I am using data from Baseball Savant instead. This pitch is uniquely defined by its grip more so than its movement, so it is probably misclassified by the automated pitch tagging system. But we’re doing the best we can here.)
What’s unsual is, of the 708 pitchers to appear in a game this season, only 50 have thrown a splitter at all. Not counting position players pitching, we’re looking at 100% of the league’s splitters coming from less than 10% of the pitchers! Why don’t more pitchers throw it?! Here are a few reasons why they should give it a try.
- The pitch isn’t too difficult or intrusive to learn.
Because the splitter is generally thrown with backspin, like a fastball or changeup, it shouldn’t be all that different to throw. Clay Buchholz showed FanGraphs his grip, saying that he learned the pitch and got several strikeouts with it on the same day.
Clay’s grip (left) is fairly unconventional from everything I’ve seen, with teammate Yoshihisa Hirano’s (pictured above) being the standard grip. As you can see, it’s not far off from a two-seam grip, and players don’t have any issue adopting two-seamers. And unlike how learning a curveball can negatively impact a pitcher’s slider, this pitch shouldn’t affect any other pitches in a player’s repertoire.
Unlike teaching a breaking ball to a child at a formative age, it simply can’t hurt to introduce young amateur players to the splitter. If even only a few of them take to it, that’s a valuable piece of a repertoire that likely hasn’t developed many other impact pitches yet.
2. It’s a great pitch for tunneling
The splitter is meant to mimic the trajectory of a fastball until the hitter’s decision point, when it ideally drops directly downward and out of the strike zone, drawing a swing and a miss. Since every pitcher throws a superhero-esque fastball, it makes sense to have a sidekick.
It’s no secret that the splitter is much more popular in Japan than it is in the states. Some one the league’s most prominent splitters belong to Japanese players like Masahiro Tanaka and Shohei Ohtani. If it works for so many pitchers in the NPB who usually have lesser fastballs, why can’t it work for domestic players to compliment their fastballs of increasing speed?
Here’s Our Lord and Savior illustrating my point beautifully with two 99mph fastballs followed by a 90mph splitter in his dazzling debut:
And here’s a clearer version thanks to @PitchingNinja:
3. One pitch can become many
There is a bit of ambiguity surrounding this pitch. Many pitchers refer to their splitters as a “split-change.”
As we can see, splitters from both righties and lefties tend to run armside, just like a changeup. Having already mentioned that splitters are usually about the same speed as changeups, it’s not hard to see why some may consider this pitch to be a type of changeup.
But if it’s a changeup, why is it often referred to as a split-fingered fastball? Well, with none of the pitches we’ve seen actually resembling a fastball in velocity or movement, it’s likely that the split-fingered fastball is more closely related to a traditional two-seam fastball than a split. Lastly, the term “splitter” seems to be reserved for the pitches with noticeable downward movement, like Tanaka and Jacob Faria.
One of the main benefits of this pitch, and a reason more players should learn it, is the potential for versatility. Watch how Faria releases his splitter to get two dramatically different pitches:
And with some practice, it’s even possible to get a splitter going with only lateral spin!
What we’ve learned:
Ethan really likes splitters (but don’t even get me started on the forkball!)
Only a small percentage of MLB pitchers throw a splitter, but more certainly could, especially if it was introduced to them as an amateur.
A good splitter looks like a fastball for most of its flight, making it a great pairing for tunneling and deception of hitters.
Splitters are a bit like changeups, but are definitely their own distinct type of pitch, able to dive at the last second or dip armside.
If you’d like to watch some more awe-inspiring splitters, I invite you to check out some more of Rob Friedman’s unofficial splitter archive here!
