It’s not apparent why Landen Roupp is nice, nevertheless it’s in all probability time to search out out.
Roupp’s 2.54 xERA is seventh amongst certified beginning pitchers. He’s placing out batters, getting groundballs, and dealing deep into video games. He’s tied for fifteenth within the majors with 0.9 WAR. That’s about 70% of what he was projected for by FanGraphs Depth Charts within the preseason. It’s probably the most shocking performances of April.
Most pitchers “get good” as a result of they miss bats, or assault the zone, or each. That doesn’t apply to Roupp this yr. His 25.1% whiff charge is in regards to the median amongst certified pitchers, and his 37.1% zone charge is backside 5. Frankly, he doesn’t throw a ton of strikes.
The underlying “stuff” metrics aren’t any extra spectacular.
Landen Roupp “Stuff”
| Metric | Quantity | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Whiff Price | 25.1 | fiftieth |
| Swinging Strike Price | 10.7 | forty second |
| Chase Price | 28.6 | forty second |
| Fastball Velocity | 93.2 | thirty fifth |
| Stuff+ | 99 | forty ninth |
| botStf | 45 | twenty second |
Roupp doesn’t throw significantly arduous, or show outlier motion, or place close to the highest of any leaderboard I do know to verify. And but, he excels. The place is all that worth coming from?
Effectively, he occurs to be the final certified pitcher of 2026 who has not allowed a barrel. His 25.0% opponent hard-hit charge is one of the best within the majors, and his .277 xwOBACON allowed is second finest, simply behind Max Fried and simply forward of Shohei Ohtani. Batters appear incapable of squaring him up, pounding grounders into the grime 56.0% of the time, or in any other case getting jammed on tender lineouts.
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This contact suppression all begins with the sinker. He throws its about 40% of the time, no matter batter handedness. It’s been price seven runs above common to date in 2026, tied for third among the many only pitches of the season. It doesn’t have outlier velocity or motion, nevertheless it nonetheless reveals that heavy, bowling-ball motion that’s confirmed to be fairly efficient at getting grounders.
It’s price declaring Roupp has gotten a bit fortunate with that sinker thus far, with only one hit allowed on 20 grounders — xwOBA thinks his sinker is among the many luckiest pitches on contact this yr. Nonetheless, the contact he’s allowed is tender, on the bottom, and customarily non-threatening. A number of extra singles right here and there shouldn’t influence his line a lot going ahead.
The opposite pitch he options is an enormous, flexible curveball. It’s merely great, and it at all times has been. Actually, Eric Longehagen and Travis Ice gave it an 80/80 grade of their report on Roupp on the 2024 Giants High Prospects listing (regardless of a extra modest 40-FV grade total). He throws it about 29% of the time, which is definitely down fairly a bit from his days as a prospect, when he was among the many uncommon primary-hook pitchers (one thing he mentioned with David Laurila final yr).
The pitch has tons and tons of motion, particularly towards the glove aspect. It’s nice at getting whiffs, it’s nice at getting chases, it’s nice at inducing tender contact. I imply, simply take a look at it:
What’s attention-grabbing is none of this has actually modified. He had the sinker and curveball final yr, in addition to the less-used changeup and cutter. Granted, the cutter is a bit totally different now, with a contact extra motion to the glove aspect. However, essentially, the stuff he throws and the best way he throws it’s an identical — it simply occurs to be working rapidly.
To be clear, Roupp wasn’t unhealthy by any means final yr. His 3.92 FIP was greater than satisfactory as a mid-rotation starter, even when a bout of minor elbow irritation and a comebacker off the knee minimize his season quick. However he actually wasn’t a top-10 pitcher within the majors, or somebody you’ll have guess on turning into one.
Right here’s the one actual change I may spy:
Roupp is releasing the ball practically a full inch farther from third base than he was in 2025. Once more, the arm angle is similar, and he’s not releasing the ball a lot otherwise. As a substitute, he’s moved from smack-dab in the course of the rubber to standing as far off to the aspect as a right-handed pitcher can presumably stand. Have a look at the 2 screenshots under, with this season on the left and final yr on the suitable:
The query then turns into, does this matter? I don’t know. Really, this beginning spot is the one change that I may discover, except we’re counting the tweaks to the cutter (which he’s thrown solely 12.4% of the time). The one different factor I can consider is, you realize, small pattern measurement, and that’s simply not a enjoyable reply.
However the idea of change right here is difficult to wrap my head round. My preliminary thought was maybe this new stance is permitting Roupp to throw to raised spots. That isn’t actually the case. In some methods, his command has gotten worse this yr — walks are the one factor he hasn’t accomplished effectively to date.
As a substitute, what I feel is occurring is Roupp has modified the angle at which his pitches method the plate horizontally. The sinker particularly is getting into the zone from a far steeper left-to-right angle, leaping from a Seventieth-percentile method angle in 2025 to a Ninety fifth-percentile one in 2026, in line with Baseball Prospectus. To be clear, I’m not Alex Chamberlain, who wrote the primer on horizontal (and vertical) method angle for this web site years in the past. I’m additionally not any of the opposite authors who wrote about method angle and pitcher stance a number of years in the past. That is removed from my space of experience, however my understanding of what’s taking place right here is it’s sophisticated, with such a change having a wide range of causes and results.
Nonetheless, I feel this is sensible intuitively for 2 causes. One might be the obvious: A unique method angle goes to discover a totally different a part of the bat, and that a part of the bat to date has been fairly actually every part however the barrel.
However I additionally marvel if this adjustments the best way batters see the pitch coming in. Roupp doesn’t rating effectively by the assorted arsenal and tunneling metrics from BP. His sinker and curveball seem like two distinctly totally different pitches out of hand, and batters must be fairly good at guessing which is which. Final yr they had been.
Possibly switching sides of the rubber adjustments that perspective. As an example, righties are actually seeing the sinker from the primary base dugout and lefties are seeing it zip in from behind their ear. Then there’s the large, gradual hook, transferring violently in the wrong way. Combine in Roupp’s funky-hitch windup and low arm slot, and he creates a weird, quite excessive look from a repertoire that’s something however.
Take this outing towards Bo Bichette. Roupp will get him within the first inning on a backdoor sinker that Bichette is clearly in between on.
Then, in his subsequent at-bat, Roupp begins Bichette with the curve, roughly in the identical spot, getting a wild chase and miss.
I like this notion idea due to this subsequent desk. One of many issues we all know in regards to the pitcher-hitter matchup is that hitters begin to acquire a bonus as they get accustomed to an arsenal. This was a problem for Roupp final yr as a result of, once more, he struggles to disguise his pitches along with his launch level, with out the uncooked stuff to make up for it. As soon as the batter will get a glance, the jig is up.
This yr, wouldn’t you realize it, Roupp is definitely turning into more practical as he works into the sport.
Landen Roupp, FIP by Instances Confronted
| Instances Confronted | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| First Flip | 2.90 | 3.29 |
| Second Flip | 2.85 | 4.09 |
| Third Flip | 2.35 | 5.05 |
Once more, not a lot has actually modified about how he’s releasing the ball, and neither has his tunneling or stuff. My hunch is it’s merely the best way the ball seems to batters that’s making them miss, serving to his sinker play up whereas the curveball lurks menacingly.
If this represents a brand new stage for Roupp, I can’t assist however discover this amusing. He’s unremarkable in so some ways, and shifting to the opposite aspect of the rubber is in regards to the easiest change a pitcher may presumably make. And but, typically that’s all it takes.