{"id":89138,"date":"2024-11-07T16:16:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T21:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=89138"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:38:07","slug":"jose-soriano-groundball-maestro-sinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/07\/jose-soriano-groundball-maestro-sinker\/","title":{"rendered":"Jose Soriano: The Groundball Maestro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jose Soriano of the Los Angeles Angels enjoyed a breakout season in 2024.\u00a0 After being used primarily in the bullpen, Soriano was stretched out as a starter this year and pitched well finishing with a 3.42 ERA and 1.2o WHIP.\u00a0 His calling card was his ability to induce ground balls at an elite rate.\u00a0 His <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders\/major-league?pos=all&amp;stats=pit&amp;lg=all&amp;type=8&amp;season=2024&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2024&amp;ind=0&amp;sortcol=13&amp;sortdir=default&amp;qual=100\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">59.7% ground ball rate<\/a> ranked third among all starting pitchers (minimum 100 innings).\u00a0 Furthermore, Soriano is one of the hardest throwing starters in baseball.\u00a0 While those are some positives, he also possesses poor command that will likely always be an issue to an extent.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s take a look at how Soriano achieved his results.<\/p>\n<h2>Jose Soriano: The Groundball Maestro<\/h2>\n<h3>Dominant Sinker<\/h3>\n<p>Jose Soriano&#8217;s primary pitch and driver of his high ground ball rate is his sinker.\u00a0 By Baseball Savant&#8217;s <a  href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/leaderboard\/pitch-arsenal-stats?type=pitcher&amp;pitchType=SI&amp;year=2024&amp;team=&amp;min=10\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Run Value<\/a> metric, Soriano&#8217;s sinker was the fourth most valuable behind some well-respected company.\u00a0 On average, his sinker produced a launch angle of -8 degrees, meaning hitters are commonly pounding his sinker into the dirt.\u00a0 He allowed only one home run all season on this pitch and was one of the best at avoiding barrels.\u00a0 It produced a ridiculous 71.9% ground ball rate while also being the hardest thrown sinker by any starting pitcher.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">More on this Jose Soriano sinker<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; hardest sinker thrown by an SP last year<br \/>\n&#8211; highest GB% (72%) of any SP last year<\/p>\n<p>The pitch helped him beat his SIERA by more than half of a run.<\/p>\n<p>ERA: 3.42<br \/>\nSIERA: 4.03<\/p>\n<p>A high GB% can make up for a lower K-BB%, and we saw that with Soriano <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qtykwACDsn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/qtykwACDsn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonPgh\/status\/1854175379394642334?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Previously as a reliever in 2023, his slider Stuff+ grade popped at a 119.\u00a0 It is understood that a pitcher&#8217;s stuff will diminish a bit as they are taking on bigger volume.\u00a0 While Soriano&#8217;s results on his sinker stayed steady, his sinker characteristics oscillated a bit month to month. Here are his sinker Stuff+ marks for each month:<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 352px;\" width=\"335\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sinker Stuff+<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">March\/April<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">96<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">May<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">103<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">June (only 2 starts)<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">87<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">July<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">95<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">August<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">89<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, Stuff+ grades on sinkers are generally lower than the standard 100 for other pitches.\u00a0 Therefore, his end of season mark of 95 rates as an above average sinker based on its physical characteristics.\u00a0 Given how its performed and his ability to use it against both handedness of hitter, this foundational pitch puts his floor already fairly high as a starter.\u00a0 He possesses premium velocity and has undergone two Tommy John surgeries, so the risk of injury is always present.\u00a0 But unlike many other marquee ground ball pitchers, Soriano has a trio of wicked secondary offerings that hint at more swing and miss upside in his profile.<\/p>\n<h3>Secondary Pitches<\/h3>\n<p>Soriano&#8217;s secondary pitches consist of a gyro slider, a 93 MPH splitter, and a two-plane knuckle curveball.\u00a0 He utilized the knuckle curve the most behind his sinker and it produced an excellent 15% swinging strike rate.\u00a0 Its combination of drop and glove-side sweep gives it the ability to be a platoon neutral pitch and also be a weak contact producer.\u00a0 This is an especially useful pitch for Soriano as it is the only pitch he throws for strikes at an above average clip.<\/p>\n<p>Next, he threw his splitter almost exclusively to left handed hitters.\u00a0 Again, it flashed very encouraging swing and miss potential with a 17.6% swinging strike rate along with a ground ball rate north of 60%.\u00a0 At minimum, this pitch is valuable to give him optionality in getting left handed hitters out.\u00a0 Given its high quality (123 Stuff+, tied for 2nd best among starters), Soriano could expand the splitter&#8217;s usage against same handed hitters as well.\u00a0 \u00a0The pitch&#8217;s combination of velocity, drop, and arm-side fade makes it an intriguing offering that could justify an uptick in usage.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, the secondary pitch with perhaps the most upside is his slider.\u00a0 His bullet slider is also thrown hard at 91.5 MPH producing an elite 20% swinging strike rate.\u00a0 However, opposite of his splitter, he exclusively threw this offering to same handed hitters.\u00a0 This could be understandable as some sweeping sliders get crushed by the opposite hand.\u00a0 But, gyro sliders profile well against opposite handed hitters.\u00a0 So, similar to his splitter, this is a pitch that he could potentially throw to each handedness of hitter with success.\u00a0 This combination of velocity and the bullet shape that drops with minimal horizontal movement gives it a Stuff+ of 117.<\/p>\n<h3>Multiple Fastballs<\/h3>\n<p>Jose Soriano&#8217;s arsenal includes five pitches in total, and the one not mentioned yet is the weak link in his four-seam fastball.\u00a0 Despite being thrown at an average of nearly 99 MPH, it has poor shape quality and resulted in it getting crushed with a .548 xSLG and .622 actual SLG.\u00a0 He dialed back the usage as the season progressed and could justify reducing it more with the quality of his secondary offerings.\u00a0 However, the rise of pitchers having <a  href=\"https:\/\/blogs.fangraphs.com\/one-fastball-isnt-enough\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">multiple fastball offerings<\/a> has proven to be necessary and a valuable piece.\u00a0 Being as unpredictable as possible is what pitchers are striving for which has subsequently led to pitchers having more in their repertoire than ever.\u00a0 In this great <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5579800\/2024\/06\/21\/mlb-offense-low-reasons-hitters-pitchers\/?redirected=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">piece<\/a> by Eno Sarris and Jayson Stark during the season outlining the lows of offense in 2024,\u00a0 Rangers offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker stated: &#8220;Multiple fastballs is a cheat code.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The four-seam fastball does not profile as a plus pitch. But, it can still be effective in instances where hitters are keying in on a secondary pitch. It will be interesting to see if he will increase the usage on his three elite secondary offerings in 2025.\u00a0 He could still throw his sinker primarily, but perhaps distribute the secondaries relatively evenly while occasionally mixing in his four-seam fastball.\u00a0 There are exciting possibilities to think about for Soriano and the leaps he could make from a strikeouts perspective.<\/p>\n<h3>Future Outlook<\/h3>\n<p>Soriano&#8217;s poor command is important to consider when analyzing his range of outcomes.\u00a0 There are reasons why his scouting reports show a current command grade of 30.\u00a0 In his first season as a starter, his <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders\/major-league?pos=all&amp;stats=pit&amp;lg=all&amp;type=36&amp;season=2024&amp;month=1000&amp;season1=2024&amp;ind=0&amp;startdate=2024-03-01&amp;enddate=2024-10-01&amp;team=0&amp;sortcol=13&amp;sortdir=asc&amp;pageitems=2000000000&amp;qual=100&amp;pagenum=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Location+<\/a> was the second worst (minimum 100 innings).\u00a0 But, there are plenty of starters that succeed without having good command (see Blake Snell, Dylan Cease).\u00a0 While obviously those are very different pitchers, there are plenty ways to manage without having pinpoint command. The <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5318763\/2024\/03\/06\/tampa-bay-rays-pitcher-development\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> famously have their pitchers throw down the middle and allow their stuff to play in the zone to build confidence.<\/p>\n<p>Building trust in their pitchers is something the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/angels\/angels-news\/angels-latest-motivational-tool-having-pitchers-face-themselves-01hy4f6akmsn\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angels did last season using the Trajekt pitching machine<\/a>.\u00a0 This machine replicates the exact arsenal and movement of any pitcher.\u00a0 The Angels had their pitchers stand in against themselves to help show that they have good stuff and to have trust in themselves.\u00a0 Specifically, Jose Soriano was enlightened and was given confidence in his elite stuff.\u00a0 Moving forward, he has the chance to establish himself at the top of the Angels&#8217; rotation.\u00a0 Now, with his high caliber of stuff and experience starting games and flipping lineups over, Soriano could take the next step in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jose Soriano of the Los Angeles Angels enjoyed a breakout season in 2024.\u00a0 After being used primarily in the bullpen, Soriano was stretched out as a starter this year and pitched well finishing with a 3.42 ERA and 1.2o WHIP.\u00a0 His calling card was his ability to induce ground balls at an elite rate.\u00a0 His [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5308,"featured_media":89162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1071],"tags":[28695],"class_list":["post-89138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels","category-mlb","tag-jose-soriano"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113544,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89138\/revisions\/113544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}