Jason missed the entire 2010 season after surgery on his right knee (karma) and dominated AAA (karma) for the Phillies prior to signing with the Pirates (karma karma).
The 35-year old Grilli has been really, really good since signing with the Pirates though. Apparently he's paid his karma-bounty in full and is free to dominate the base and ball game.
I have absolutely no clue how this came to be, though.
Prior to his knee injury, Grilli posted ERAs of 5.40, 6.08, 7.40, 3.38, 4.21, 4.74, 3.00, and 5.32. Basically what you'd expect from a journeyman.
Then, 2011 happened. Grilli was still throwing about 92mph on the heater. Grilli was still throwing a breaking pitch about a third of the time. So what the hell happened?
Pitch | Count | Frequency | H. Mvt | V. Mvt | Mph | H. Rel | V. Rel | Spin Θ | RPM | |
2007 | Slider (SL) | 176 | 25% | 6.18 | -29.11 | 85.67 | -3.07 | 6.69 | 123 | 708 |
2008 | Slider (SL) | 490 | 40% | 7.46 | -29.53 | 84.84 | -2.94 | 6.74 | 119 | 861 |
2009 | Slider (SL) | 305 | 32% | 5.76 | -26.27 | 85.11 | -3.08 | 6.61 | 144 | 939 |
2011 | Slider (SL) | 195 | 38% | 12.48 | -37.59 | 81.91 | -3.04 | 6.4 | 79 | 1348 |
2012 | Slider (SL) | 58 | 36% | 9.99 | -33.94 | 83.04 | -3.21 | 6.5 | 92 | 1041 |
Cool.
That's almost a brand-new pitch and batters have been having a hell of a time with it. Batters have went from swinging at about a quarter of the pitches that Grilli throws outside of the zone (league average) to swinging at 40% of 'em.
After posting a 10.19 K/9 in 2011, Grilli's sitting pretty with a 16.20 K/9 mark in 2012.
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