Early Statcast data. What looks to have changed for the Astros pitchers early on.

Luis Garcia – He’s throwing about 1 mph slower on his fastball on his first start than he was last season. The bigger change so far is his cutter. His cutter was his best pitch last year, worth 10 runs of value over the course of the year. He threw it 29.4% of the time. His 4 seamer was mediocre, costing 3 runs worth of value over the season, despite throwing it 42.4% of the time.

In his first start, Garcia threw a cutter more than half the time; 46 of his 91 pitches. His fastball went down to 29.7% (27 pitches). And his cutter was by far his best pitch, and the only pitch he garnered strikeouts on.

It will be interesting to see if he continues to be super cutter heavy while minimizing his 4 seamer usage. The numbers would seem to support this mix.

Hector Neris – Ooh boy. Héctor Neris is down 2.1 mph on his sinker and 1.3 mph on his 4 seamer. This will be a pretty huge difference if it holds. Per a Fangraphs article I found, a 1 mph drop in velocity can equate to roughly a 0.5 era gain (for relievers). This may just be Neris ramping up though. Checking his earliest appearances in 2022, his velocity seemed to be similarly (albeit slightly less) down to what it is now. Hopefully he starts throwing a little harder.

Phil Maton – Maton was down 1.6 mph on his 4SFB and 1.8 mph on his sinker. Maybe this has to do with the time off since coming back from the injury? Anyhow, there’s a big difference between throwing 91 and 89.

Ronel Blanco – Blanco’s velocity is up across the board; which is impressive considering they got him stretched out for multi inning relief/to be waiting in the wings in case a starter gets hurt. He’s throwing 96.3 on his fastball versus 95.2 last year. His slider and changeup are also being thrown harder. This looks promising and I’m excited to see how he performs this year. His slider (which he’s thrown 58.8% of the time versus 42.5 last year) has been particularly nasty with a 84.6% whiff%.

Jose Urquidy – Urquidy’s fastball velo is pretty much exactly where it was last year. But his slider (up 1.4 mph) and his curveball (up 2.8 mph) are being thrown significantly harder. As he’s throwing them harder he’s also getting more spin. But throwing them harder also means less vertical drop. Both have looked pretty good so far. The slider has been whiffed on 50% of the time, and the curveball did not yield a hit through its 14 pitches. It was actually Urquidy’s fastball that got tagged in his start, but his fastball was a very effective pitch for him last year. We’ll have to continue to see if Urquidy sticks with the new breaking ball shape and what the results will be.