There is no doubt that Corbin Burnes’ name is on the shortlist of top pitchers in 2021, however just 2 years ago he was among the worst. 

Looking at Corbin Burnes’ stats from 2019, there were not many positives to indicate future success in his 8.82 ERA. His baseball savant page shows that he was below the 25th percentile for over half of the metrics. However, there were 3 metrics that are hard to teach and indicators of good “stuff” in which he was ranked very high. 

Chart A 

Looking at Chart A, each of these metrics remained virtually the same from the time he had an 8.82 ERA and for this year where he is won the Cy Young Award. His Fastball spin rate, as well as his fastball’s velocity ranked very high. A combination of high spin and high velocity with a Spin Direction around 12:30 should have put him at the top of the league in induced vertical movement (“rise” against gravity). Instead, in 2019 he was ranked 247th out of 429 qualified pitchers (42nd Percentile).

So, what happened? 

Looking at his fastball in pitchLogic, you can clearly see that his spin efficiency (active spin) was at 68% which means instead of throwing it along the standard path while getting behind the ball with his fingers, he has a natural cut to his fastball. This is caused by an increased gyro angle while releasing the ball from more of the side. This cut mixed with a fastball’s natural movement the other way led to his fastball appearing almost perfectly straight to the batter. Clearly, this did not work for him, and beginning in 2020 he embraced his natural cut and made his cutter his main pitch. 

Chart B shows his transition from 2019-2020 where he virtually stopped throwing his fastball and threw his cutter and sinker as his 2 main pitches. Then, in 2021 his cutter became his main pitch. 

He replaced a pitch that was measured as the worst pitch in all of MLB out of 3,156 pitches, with the 4th best pitch thrown in MLB! 

Burnes’ transition from 2019-2021 was quite remarkable, and largely due to his switch from Fastball to Cutter as his main pitch. Usually, when a pitcher makes a huge jump as Burnes has made, you find that he had a big velocity increase, increased his spin, or changed his mechanics drastically. He did none of these, as we can see in his identical percentile rankings and consistent spin direction recordings through the years. Given this information, it is vital to record and track your pitch metrics to fully understanding how to improve.