Tinker tinker tweak tweak ACE
“Sinker. Two-Seamer. Whatever.”
I am making a solem declaration on behalf of interested baseball nuts everywhere. The sinker and the two-seamer are not the same pitch. You might as well say that a cutter and a slider are the same thing, and some folks do.
It’s a lot more complicated than that, and I want to key in on Logan Allen in order to explain. First, let’s consider Quincy Wheeler’s own musings from a few days ago.
The primary change Allen has displayed is adding a sinker to his pitch mix. Now, the sinker for Allen isn’t a particularly good pitch by the metrics. But, so far, it’s gotten good results. Part of this is likely hitters getting more information on the pitch, but part of it is also Allen doing what pitchers like Ben Lively and Aaron Civale do to be effective – throw enough pitches where hitters remain just slightly off in their timing while preparing for any given pitch to be thrown at any given time.
It’s the last sentence there that really is the key. Allen needs to keep hitters off-balance and guessing. With fastball velocities in the low nineties its crucial that he hits his spots with them and avoids hard contact.
Next, let’s consider Mike Petriello’s own observations about league-wide sinker usage this season.
But sinkers have slowly been regaining value for the last few years. And now? They’re as valuable on a per-pitch basis as they’ve ever been. (The terms “sinker” and “two-seamer” both have been used over the years, with some disagreement over whether they refer to the same, or slightly different, pitches. At present, Statcast calls all of these pitches sinkers, for the sake of clarity.)
To put that in a more traditional viewpoint: In 2009, batters hit .301 against sinkers, a figure which is down all the way to .268 this year. If you’re about to point out that batting average is down across the board, that’s true – except that it’s down only 22 points on all non-sinker pitches. This is a sinker-specific story, at least for today.
Petriello expands on league-wide trends to explain the change in value. For a long time pitchers pounded the bottom of the strike zone but hitters learned to elevate and celebrate. Perhaps more to the point, pitchers are tinkering with how the “sinker” is used. Here is where I wish I could officially separate the sinker from the two-seamer:
The 2025 version of a sinker is A) faster than ever, B) with more arm-side movement than ever, and C) with less vertical break than ever.
Enter the changes to Logan Allen’s “sinker”.
Look at this and tell me with a straight face that he’s throwing the same “sinker” that he did last season. Do it. I’ll wait, and in the meantime here is a double-shot of Everclear. You can either attempt to tell me that this is the same type of pitch or you can do this double-shot of Everclear. You must keep a straight face either way. It isn’t really even sinking anymore.
When there is that much of a difference in the shape of a pitch it deserves a different classification. This isn’t a complaint about statcast or pitching nomenclature so much as a plea to begin officially designating these as different types of fastballs.
So what does it matter that one of his secondary fastballs is no longer dropping but primarily scooting? Tunnelling, y’all. We must remember the effects of tunnelling and the importance of disgusing a pitch until the last possible moment. Let’s take a look at the full movement matrix for Logan Allen’s pitches this year and last, along with run value by pitch type.
There is a lot going on in these charts, so let’s start by zeroing in. We want to pay attention to the rows for “Sinker” and in particularly the columns where Total Movement is calculated.
First, in my lifetime we went from a few numbers on a baseball card to this kind of data and I’m still only 35.
Second, his Sinker dropped 6.5” compared to comparable pitches in 2024. In 2025 that reduced to 1.1”, shaving more than five inches off of the vertical break. This means his “sinker” is going to look a lot more like his four-seam and cut fastball for longer.
We can see the positive impact this has on all of his fastballs in the next table. If all three look more or less the same coming out of the hand, and they continue to look the same for a brief window after they leave his hand, hitters are just kind of doomed. That’s three different movement profiles for three different pitches all traveling roughly the same speed. Makes it a lot harder to “sit fastball” if you aren’t sure how it’s going to squirm. It may very well be the source of his low hard hit numbers.
Pitchers are even figuring out how to manipulate the location of the seams as the ball leaves the hand in order to create more movement. Good luck, sluggers.
It is the same set of ingredients that Corey Kluber used to fuel his success. Replace “sweeper” with “curveball” and you’re actually looking at the same pitch mix. Kluber largely abandoned his four-seam fastball at times but if you go look at what he could do with the two-seamer and cutter in 2016 you’ll nod to yourself and say, “In the name of all that is or has been holy I wouldn’t throw the straight one either.”
One additional thing to consider about Allen’s 2025 thus far is his wipeout pitch. While Kluber often left righties lunging and lefties twisted toward their back foot with his breaking pitches, Allen is sneaking in the back door.
I really like the look of his sweeper charging back toward the plate against righties. That’s a devastating offering and when the umpire gives him the extra inch like he did yesterday it’s going to be a long afternoon for hitters. Notice how he mixes this with elevated fastballs to keep the hitter’s eye levels moving.
I am doing a lot of conjecture here based on early numbers but we know for a fact that Allen’s approach has changed in at least one other important way. His arm slot.
All of this tinkering appears to make a difference for Logan Allen in the early 2025 season. Major League Baseball is a league of adjustments and interested viewers should keep an eye on how the league adjusts to this version of the lefty.
There is a lot of conjecture and number-grabbing in this article but there are some interesting early trends to latch onto for fans of the One True Logan Allen. May he continue to baffle hitters.