The hype for Jackson Jobe is really high. And for good reasons. He threw 62 innings this year and gave up 6 walks while striking out 80 across three different levels. That was good for a 31.7% K% and 2.4% BB%. At the end of the season, he left everyone wanting him on the big league roster next year — some advocating for the start. He’s dominated. 

And we all know that Jobe knows how to spin the ball. Multiple pitches with near or above 3,000 RPMs is unreal. So let’s dig into what data we have on them and discuss it. 

Is it a slider or a sweeper?

This was a fun one! In the data we could get from Lakeland, they referred to his pitch as a slider. However, the one in the AFL has registered as a sweeper. If you aren’t aware, a sweeper is a variation of a slider that has more “sweeping” action (hence the name) so you will see more movement than you would with a standard slider. Let’s look at some data for the two pitches and see how different they might be.

We got average drop and movement, but let’s look at the movement for each as well as release point:

Looking at these, I think the sweeper was never a new pitch for him. Rather, his pitch that was categorized as a slider actually was a sweeper all along. And for the AFL sweeper, we can see a few times that resemble the standard slider. The additional usage right now makes me wonder if he is actually working on a more traditional slider vs. the sweeping one — especially when you factor in 16 of 34 sweepers he’s thrown have 9 inches or less of movement.

How does he use his breaking balls

We know they are good. But how does he put them to use? 

So far he really likes to throw his breaking balls when the count is even. Half of them (44 of 83) were in that situation and he’s also generating strikes. 16 of the 44, or 36.4%, of those pitches were strikes, both the called and swinging variety. And in my opinion — this is great news. It shows that he has the ability and the confidence to pull himself ahead in counts using his breaking ball. 

What about specific pitches in each count? Does he prefer the slider/sweeper over the curveball? 

That’s a pretty even distribution with the exception of the 0-0 count. If he’s going to go breaking ball, he’s not using the curveball nearly as much as the other two. Which makes sense when you factor in he had a 61.7% Whiff% and a 40.0% CSW for his slider in Lakeland.

Conclusion on Jackson Jobe 

When Jackson Jobe reaches the major league team is a slight mystery. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think it’s next year. With this arsenal of breaking pitches, I’m excited to see him reach it whenever it might be. And that’s without touching his fastballs or off-speed pitches. And it’s going to be even more fun to see how he continues to optimize these. Could we see his curveball earlier in the count more? Will he focus more on a traditional slider to pair with his sweeper? All I know is that I’m ready for whatever it is he wants to do.