Certainly one of baseball’s pleasant postseason traditions is the introduction of latest characters to the nationwide consciousness. Through the common season, the main focus is unfold out over as many as 15 largely meaningless video games an evening. When the calendar turns to October, there’s one recreation occurring at a time, possibly two, and every pitch is of colossal significance. Following regular-season baseball is fishing with a internet; following postseason baseball is fishing with a sniper rifle.
So each October, we meet gamers beforehand unknown or little-considered. We put faces to names and visible recognition to stat strains. And like clockwork, some rookie center reliever from a non-glamor franchise (normally however not at all times the Rays) will come out within the eighth inning of a recreation in opposition to the Astros or Dodgers and minimize by way of three straight All-Stars like a sizzling wire by way of Styrofoam.
If you happen to care about spoiling key postseason narratives, you must cease studying. If not, you’ll need to find out about Abner Uribe.
Uribe making any type of lasting impression on the postseason is based on the Brewers not solely hanging on to their playoff spot but additionally staying within the playoffs some time. Assuming they get there, will probably be their fifth journey to the playoffs in six seasons. Over that point, they’ve performed 17 postseason video games, 9 of them coming within the daytime.
To not be all East Coast Bias man, however since 2018, 14 completely different groups have performed six or extra playoff video games. 5 of these groups have performed at the very least half of these video games within the daytime: 4 groups from the Midwest, together with the Brewers, and the A’s. The Yankees, Purple Sox, and Dodgers have all had nighttime begins for at the very least 80% of their playoff video games up to now 5 seasons. Right here, have some tin foil. There’s loads to go round.
The purpose is, if Uribe goes to get on nationwide prime time TV, the Brewers are going to need to make a run. And to ensure that that to occur, Devin Williams must be closing video games. Uribe has largely been a seventh-inning man for Craig Counsell up to now. So this can be a center reliever for a group whose playoff video games are most likely going to get buried on the TV schedule. And but I’m selecting him as a possible breakout star of this postseason. That ought to inform you what you want to find out about Uribe’s stuff.
I don’t know if Uribe’s rise must be described as meteoric or not, however both manner there’s not an extended observe report. Uribe was a 20-year-old simply out of rookie ball when the pandemic shut down the minor leagues in 2020, and he missed most of 2022 with a torn meniscus. The one motive I used to be conscious of him earlier than this season was a dialog I had with Eric Longenhagen throughout final 12 months’s playoffs. Eric had simply seen Uribe pitch within the Arizona Fall League, and he advised me to be careful for him in that very same distant, sagacious tone of voice you normally hear from an oracle delivering an ambiguous prophecy in the beginning of a Greek epic.
When Uribe obtained referred to as as much as Milwaukee two months in the past, he’d thrown simply 59 2/3 profession innings above rookie ball. However in these 59 2/3 innings, he struck out 97 batters. The headline on his scouting report is “100-mph sinker.” Behold:
Abner Uribe’s Sick 101mph Turbo Sinker.
“That is gonna be on PitchingNinja.” ? pic.twitter.com/H08aUN5BU4
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 12, 2023
Uribe’s sinker averages 99.4 mph this season, which is the third-hardest two-seamer in baseball behind Aroldis Chapman and Jordan Hicks — you realize, two of the fellows who’re well-known for being the hardest-throwing pitchers of all time. Uribe has thrown 17 pitches at 101 mph or more durable this season. That’s 4.9% of his complete pitches thrown, the seventh-highest ratio in baseball.
If you happen to’re like me, you hear the phrase “100-mph sinker” and your thoughts jumps instantly to Jhoan Duran, however these two aren’t very a lot alike. Duran is a three-pitch pitcher, with a four-seamer, a curveball, and that splinker of his — a pitch that walks proper as much as the god of physics, spits in his eye, and asks, “what the hell are you gonna do about it?” Uribe is a two-pitch man, with a tough slider that turns left because it approaches the plate and the aforementioned even more durable sinker that turns the other way. Statcast credit Uribe with throwing a four-seamer as nicely, however solely 5.5% of the time, or 19 instances complete in his main league profession.
Since there’s nothing new below the solar, Uribe can’t be distinctive. Uncommon, positive, however there should be others like him. And positive sufficient, there are 4 pitchers this 12 months who’ve common sinker velocity of 98 mph or increased and who throw that sinker and one breaking ball at the very least 80% of the time put collectively. Why 80%? I needed to set the bar excessive sufficient to eradicate pitchers like Duran or Joe Kelly who’ve broader arsenals, however not so excessive that I minimize out Hicks and Gregory Soto. They’re my endpoints; I’ll set them as arbitrarily as I like, thanks.
The Hardest Sinkers This Aspect of The Poseidon Journey
| Pitcher | Pitch | Utilization% | Velo | Drop (in.) | Experience (in.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abner Uribe | Sinker | 63.0 | 99.4 | 20.8 | 13.9 |
| Abner Uribe | Slider | 31.5 | 89.6 | 31.8 | 7.6 |
| Gregory Santos | Sinker | 43.6 | 98.9 | 31.0 | 5.7 |
| Gregory Santos | Slider | 53.1 | 91.4 | 20.9 | 11.7 |
| Jordan Hicks | Sinker | 61.2 | 100.3 | 18.8 | 15.5 |
| Jordan Hicks | Sweeper | 21.2 | 87.0 | 36.0 | 12.2 |
| Gregory Soto | Sinker | 41.9 | 98.0 | 19.1 | 17.3 |
| Gregory Soto | Slider | 39.5 | 87.9 | 31.7 | 2.0 |
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
I thought-about including José Alvarado, whose sinker-cutter mixture has the same impact to a tough slider like Santos or Uribe, however that was a bit an excessive amount of of a stretch. The Phillies, it’s value mentioning, love a tough sinker. Three of the 14 hardest-thrown sinkers in baseball this season belong to Phillies relievers: Soto, Alvarado, and Seranthony Domínguez, and no. 17, Yunior Marte, is a Lehigh Valley Iron Pig.
It’s most likely honest to imagine that Uribe is much from his completed type, not simply due to his lack {of professional} expertise but additionally as a result of he’s nonetheless solely 23 years outdated. The largest factor he has to enhance is his command. Eric’s entry on Uribe in December’s Brewers prime prospect record has the section “20-grade management” within the second sentence, which isn’t what you need to see, even when Uribe has clearly developed a more in-depth relationship with the strike zone this season. Nonetheless, he’s been tagged in a single article throughout his two-month large league profession: a bit in a Ben Clemens 5 Issues column that entails Uribe coming into a recreation with the bases loaded and strolling in two runs on eight pitches.
Nonetheless, occasional wildness isn’t the top of the world. I as soon as bemoaned the truth that relievers had gotten so dependable; a bullpen may be so good it sucks all of the enjoyable out of the sport. I used to be writing about Alvarado and publicly tried to stroll the sentiment again repeatedly over the course of that season, however I can’t deny that life is extra thrilling when a reliever with unhittable stuff loses his command.
As arduous as Uribe throws, his supply isn’t some ungovernable mess of spider crab limbs. The perfect model of himself most likely entails working that four-seamer in slightly extra to maintain hitters off-balance, as Hicks does. The primary distinction between the 2 on the outcomes entrance is that Hicks offers up far much less arduous contact.
However proper now, Uribe can simply throw the ball previous anybody. He has thrown 109 sliders this season. Hitters have swung and missed 28 instances and put the ball in play simply 4 instances. Of these batted balls, three had an xBA below .100, and two had an xBA below .010.
On one hand, Uribe might solely have existed now, with fashionable teaching and improvement strategies and the type of athletic requirements that enable a person to throw a sinker at 100 mph constantly. On the opposite, he’s an old-school rock-and-roll, all-gas-no-brakes reliever. Proper now, he’s a hipster favourite. But when he will get any type of publicity within the playoffs, everybody goes to know his identify.