Showing his talent from his first year in Japan

​Andres Machado pitcher has a total of 137 plate appearances in four years in the majors. He joined Orix after becoming a free agent in the 2023 offseason with the Nationals to play in Japan. Last season, his first year in Japan, he started in May. Yoshihisa Hirano pitcher He was assigned as the closer, sometimes volunteering to pitch three consecutive innings, and played a full rotation. He became the first foreign pitcher player to record 20 saves in a season. In this article, we will delve into the pitching of the right-hander, who has shown his adaptation to the Japanese baseball world.

Overwhelming hitter with "the speed of breaking ball"

Machado pitcher has four pitches, including a fastball and two seam fastball fastball and two breaking ball, slider and change-up. Looking at the results by ball type, 38 were recorded in two breaking ball types out of a total of 58 strike out. Both dominated the mid-Avg and hitter percentages.

One of the factors that may have contributed to his good results is his pitching speed. fastball and two seam fastball are plenty fast, but here we'd like to focus on breaking ball. slider has an average speed of 142.6 km/h, the second fastest among the 109 pitchers who threw the same pitch 100 or more times in the NPB last season, behind Saitama Seibu 's pitcher. And change-up averaged 145.8 km/h, approaching the fastball average for fastballs. This is the highest record among all pitcher who have thrown the same pitch 100 or more times in a season in the NPB since 2004, when data became available.

Thorough pitch to low pitches

However, the fact that the speed of breaking ball is close to that of an average pitcher 's fastball means that if the ball floats in the air, it may be easier for hitter to time it accordingly. Looking at the percentage of pitch thrown by height, nearly 80% of both pitch are thrown low, with very few floating high. Machado pitcher strength is not just his fast pitches, but his ability to keep throwing them in the right zone.

The strikeout rate and ground ball rate are among the best in the league.

He throws high-speed breaking ball that other pitcher don't have, and focuses them thoroughly on the lower end. This pitch style allows him to get many strikeouts, while still producing a large number of ground balls even when the ball is hit. Looking at the rankings for each indicator, pitcher ranks high in both, among a different lineup. It seems that he has realized the ideal relief pitcher, reducing the risk of long hits with these two approaches.

pitcher 's data from his 23 years in the majors showed that he had excellent control, but his strikeout and ground ball numbers were not outstanding. Nevertheless, he decided to go to Japan because he was confident that his pitch style would be an advantage in the NPB. He hopes to show the skills he proved in his first year again this season and lead his team to a high ranking.

*All figures in the text and table are as of the end of the 2024 season.

Text and Data Stadium