I do not agree that Bummer has platoon splits big enough to care about and treat him like a LOOGY. Now whether we should be giving him high leverage innings, worth discussing.
Is there any reason to believe the guy making those charts has any idea what he is talking about? I scrolled down to the next post as he gave Ohtani a similar “B-/D+/D” grade for his sIx shutout innings.
Conceptually, changeups and splitters aren’t really that different—they are different grips doing the work of slowing down spin rate. Bryce is definitely still throwing a change.
But you are correct that the new spin rate is closer to traditional splitter territory than his previous change...
Guess I wasn’t paying that close attention in the spring, but Bryce has significantly ramped up his change up. That’s a pretty noticeable change in spin rate.
Tom Glavine was putting up 4 WAR seasons at age 39 after they had Questec in place and the strike zone changed as a result. If the strike zone had changed earlier, he would have changed along with it because he was a tremendous pitcher.