Bryan Woo made his Major League debut in 2023 and went on to make 18 starts, which spanned over 87.2 innings and resulted in a 4.21 ERA and a 4.36 FIP. Here is a statistical recap of Woo’s first season at the Major League level:
Anyone who has ever watched even one Woo start is likely to come away from it with the same conclusion of “this guy has a premium fastball” and he very much does. Woo’s four-seamer averaged 95.1 mph to go along with elite extension (6.8 feet), which is a primary reason why Woo’s four-seam has plus-plus carry to it through the zone and carried a 30.3% whiff rate last season.
But Woo’s four-seamer isn’t what this piece is about, because it’s already the pitch that separates him from most of his contemporaries. Woo’s Achilles heel has always been his struggles against left-handed hitters, and as much dialogue as there’s been around Woo and what pitch he could add to improve his success against those left-handed hitters, I wanted to see how he could better utilize his existing arsenal to fare better against batters with the platoon advantage.
Here is Woo’s pitch usage against left-handed batters in 2023:
And that’s where we get to Woo’s sinker and how he uses it against left-handed batters. Woo’s sinker averaged 95.0 mph in 2023 with 16.6 inches of horizontal movement to it, but didn’t yield positive results for him against LHH’s last season. I think the issue is more about where he’s trying to attack LHH’s with it more than it being due to the pitch’s shape and profile itself.
In 2023, left-handed hitters slugged .632 against Woo’s sinker, which he threw 12.8% of the time when facing LHH’s. However, when you pull back the hood on the 95 sinkers Woo threw to LHH’s last season, it’s pretty apparent as to why LHH’s fared so well against the offering:
Alarmingly few of these sinkers to LHH’s are thrown on the inner third of the plate, which is where I’d strongly argue is the most effective point of attack with the sinker.
I’ve seen a lot of (rightful) hype around Woo being a breakout candidate for many people this year and a lot of that revolves around him greatly improving upon his changeup enough that he can also increase the useage so it can be a legitimate weapon against LHH’s, and/or adding a pitch like a cutter with the same objective of having another weapon to attack LHH’s with.
While I do believe either or both of those things would be great, I think he could take a large step forward in this goal by shifting his sinker useage to the inner quadrants more. I don’t even believe a significant increase in useage of the sinker vs LHH’s is essential, just that more of the ones he does throw are in more effective quadrants of the zone.
Here are a couple instances of him doing precisely what I’d like to see him do more of in the future:
The reason I’m a big fan of front-hip sinkers like Woo’s to LHH’s is because they’re so effective at getting called strikes. Having that split second where your brain thinks you’re going to wear the pitch is the reason behind this in my opinion, because it’s not something you can ever train your brain out of unless you commit to looking specifically for that pitch.
Even when a LH batter can recognize the pitch in time to swing, it often times results in hacks like these:
I think that even if Woo keeps his sinker usage vs LHH’s around what it was last season (12.8%) and just throws it more on that inner third of the plate, then it help tame LHH’s in the short-term while also giving him an even higher ceiling for future years in hopes he is able to add another effective offering to his arsenal against LHH’s.
Woo has the advantage of building his arsenal around a premium fastball and that’s what makes him such an intriguing arm to keep tabs on both short and long-term and I’m looking forward to doing that.