Inside the Batter's Box: Who threw what pitch the best in 2017?

Who threw what pitch the best in 2017?

I am going to use Pitch Value as the measure for this. It is a stat developed specifically to answer this question. Pitch values allow you to see how successful each pitch has been over the course of the season. It is measured by runs saved by the pitcher using that pitch. A score of zero is average, with negative scores being below average and positive scores being above average. Let's see who had the best pitches for 2017.

Let's look at the fastball first. This chart shows the top 15 starting pitchers in runs saved by usage of successful fastballs.

FASTBALLS

We see Justin Verlander and Chris Sale led MLB last season. Not so surprising there. Interesting to see Andrew Cashner 3rd, Lance Lynn 5th, and how about RA Dickey 10th! Dickey will show up because his use was very small as he is a knuckleball pitcher and his results were good. His showing on this list is sort of an anomaly.

The best pitch in baseball is now the slider. If you have a good one, you can combine it with the fastball and dominate the league.

SLIDERS

Here we see Max Scherzer dominate. Notice that he also appears on the fastball chart. He did win the Cy Young in 2017 so this is indications of why. Marcus Stroman maybe an underrated performer too. He appears on the tops in both lists. It is no surprise to see Clayton Kershaw appear on both. Luis Severino just missed as he was 18th on the fastballs list.

The next chart is cutters (cut fastballs). There are only 18 qualified starters who threw this pitch so I will include them all.

CUTTERS

Mike Leake, Jon Lester, and Corey Kluber lead the way here. This pitch is not resulting in many good outcomes with only 5 pitchers above average. Did you notice that Marcus Stroman made another list? In this case, it is not a good result.

Now to the curveballs. This is a staple in a pitchers arsenal so let's see who had the best one.

CURVEBALLS

WOW! Corey Kluber has the BEST in baseball! He saved 37.8 runs using this pitch. Interesting to see Aaron Nola #2 on the list. Clayton Kershaw makes another positive list in the top 15 (that make 3 charts for him). It is also interesting to see the CLE big three starters are all on this list.

Now let's look at changeups. Another staple of quality pitching is the off-speed stuff.

CHANGEUPS

Jason Vargas is #1 on the list. He was extremely hot to start 2017 but faded down the stretch. He had the changeup in MLB last season. Notice the hard throwers that are on the changeup list. Strasburg, Severino, Scherzer, Sale, etc. They are great because they mix the tempo of the hitters' swings producing the outs. By the way, Kershaw finished 18th just missing another list!

These were the very best pitches used by starting pitchers. It might be interesting to look at the failures too. I will just post the charts with no commentary but remember these will be costing their teams runs.

BAD FASTBALLS