Schlittler's Fastball Dominance: Yankees Pitcher's Secret Weapon

0:00On April 23rd, Kam Schlittler leads all starting pictures by throwing fastballs nearly 90% of the time through his first five starts this season. The 25-year-old Yankees writing mixes three types, four-seamer, two-seamer, and cutter to keep hitters guessing. He's dominating with a 1.95 earned run average, Thompson Fielding independent pitching at 0.86 and second and expected, earned run average at 2.27 among qualified starters. Earlier this week, Schlittler spoke about how his approach evolved naturally, not as some rigid plan. He climbs the mountain Thursday night at Fenway Park for the series finale against the Red Sox, his first regular season start there. Last October, he etched his name in rivalry history with eight scoreless innings on mostly fastballs in the Wildcard series. Yankees catcher J.C. Escara breaks it down like this. All three fastballs release the same and clock similar speeds, so hitters commit early, but the pitches break different ways late. That timing trick makes solid contact rare unless you guess right all at bat.

1:05No wonder Schlittler's strikeout rate sits at 34%, while walks are a tiny 2.9%. Each fastball has leveled up. His four-seamer hits 97.5 miles per hour with more rise. The two-seamer runs hard inside on righties. At 97.1 and the cutter dives at the top of the zone like an outlier weapon. He mixes them to both sides of the plate, pounding high and confusing barrels. Schlittler's still tweaking, and if this keeps building through the year, hitters better brace for an even tougher arsenal lighting up the radar gun. Stay tuned with MLB News today, AI-powered updates.