Rodon (Carlos Rodon) is forced to invest. Rodon will move to the Yankees next season on a six-year, US$162 million contract. Fans are looking forward to it. However, it remains to be seen whether the change from Oracle Park, which is good for pitchers, to Yankee Stadium, which is

Carlos Rodon

Strong pitcher Rodon will move to the Yankees next season on a six-year, $162 million contract. Fans are looking forward to it. However, it remains to be seen whether the change from Oracle Park, which is good for pitchers, to Yankee Stadium, which is good for hitters, will affect his performance.

html $162 million in 2006. Carlos Rodon, the biggest left-hand pitcher in the free market this year, will move to the New York Yankees next year. Last season he played for the San Francisco Giants He gave the best performance of his career, starting 31 games and finishing 178 innings, with 237 strikeouts and a top-notch 2.88 ERA. His FIP of 2.25 was even more staggering. He only allowed 12 home runs in the entire season, which was his only concern. Perhaps it’s the declining HardHit%. In addition, after switching from pitcher-friendly Oracle Park to the home run-filled home run of the Yankees, the newly arrived Lowden will be like his predecessor Gerrit Cole. Cole, become the next home run machine?

has re-signed "Judge" Aaron Judge. The Yankees' report card this offseason has been passed. Ace Cole (13 wins and 8 losses, ERA 3.50) serves as the engine, the resurgent Luis Severino (7 wins and 3 losses, ERA 3.18), and Nestor Cortes (12 wins and 4 losses, ERA 2.44), Frankie Montas Montas, 5 wins, 15 losses, 4.05 ERA), except for injury concerns, this is already an impeccable starting lineup. Now the arrival of Lowden has also minimized the variables in the Stripes' strength.

MontasFrankie Montas

Except for Montas, who was traded from the Athletics in mid-season, the Yankees' other starting pitchers performed very well, and they will be even more powerful after Loden joins next year.

Loden is a fastball pitcher of his own school. His four-seam usage rate alone is as high as 61%. Coupled with 31.1% of his slider , he is almost a two-ball pitcher. This is rare among starting pitchers. This season, his four-seam fastball miss rate is as high as 27.9%, ranking second in the league, second only to his new teammate Cole, which is amazing. What's more interesting is his ball speed growth curve. The increase in ball speed has also caused his hit rate to drop rapidly. Since the ball speed officially exceeded 95 miles in the 2021 season, the opponent's miss rate has increased sharply from 16% to 30.9%. As for another weapon, the slider, it has a miraculous effect on both left and right shots. The swing rate is close to 40%. His precise ball control is also the main reason why he has jumped to the first level of strong pitching in recent years. BB/9 has dropped from 4 to 2.5 in the past two years. Even though he will be 31 years old next year, the prediction system is still optimistic that he can still deliver an ERA of 3.14, a strikeout rate of 11.7 per 9 innings, and a win share (WAR) of 4.5.

We all know that Loden had a dominant performance at Oracle Arena, known as the "Pitcher's Paradise" last year. He only hit 12 home runs in the entire season, and his HR/9 was a career-low 0.61. But he will now enter Yankee Stadium where his home run output is higher than the league average. Whether he can maintain a profit margin is unknown. Although he is good at creating swings and uses straight balls as his main weapon, he also pays the price in the hit data. This season's HardHit% is 39.8%, ranking in the bottom 30% of the league. The average initial velocity of the ball (89 miles) is not ideal. This can't help but make people worry about whether the Yankees will sign another "home run king" in the next six years. Fortunately, the numbers show that Lowden's strength is by no means favored by the golf course. Although the balls he hits are strong on average, his Barrel% is only 6.5%, which means that the secret that allows him to hit fastballs continuously without being hit hard is the elevation angle of the opponent's ball.

Carlos Rodon

In the past few seasons with the White Sox, Rodon averaged 1 home run every nine innings. Last year with the Giants, the number was as low as only 0.6. His suppression ability is amazing.

After switching to a four-seam fastball as his main weapon, Loden's batting angle against hitters has continued to rise. It has been close to 20 degrees for three consecutive years, which is much higher than the league average of 14.9. This season, it is as high as 44 degrees. The fly ball rate is .6%. However, hitters cannot convert it into long hits of equivalent value, which means that these fly balls are high but not far-reaching. This can also be proved from the BABIP that is slightly higher than the career average this season: Lowden does have a good grasp of the quality of the bat.