Payton Tolle might be the most energetic pitcher in the league. Sometimes he transfers that energy into pushups on the mound. More often, he transfers it into the baseball.
Everything about Tolle is explosive, which is why he's 1) a fan favorite and 2) a frontline starter for a playoff-bound Red Sox team.
We want to dive into why the ball explodes out of Tolle's hand, before the big lefty takes the mound Sunday at Fenway Park for Boston's series finale against the Royals.
It comes down to one theme: Tolle pitches from the extremes.
What do we mean by that? Let's break down Tolle's delivery into its basic components: his release point, his arm angle and his release extension. That covers all three dimensions of how he throws a pitch. Then we can see why he stands out:
- He delivers the ball from far OUT.
- He delivers the ball from far DOWN.
- He delivers the ball from far FORWARD.
We're going to go through those one at a time. Here's what we're referring to: The power-pitching Tolle has a wide horizontal release point, a low arm angle and a long extension. He rips his pitches at the hitter from far toward first base, out of a low slot and from way in front of the rubber. There's a little "Lefty Jacob Misiorowski" in him in that sense.
- Tolle's horizontal release: 2.73 feet toward first base
- Tolle's arm angle: 28 degrees
- Tolle's extension: 7.3 feet
Tolle is the only starting pitcher this season to release the ball from at least 7 feet in front of the rubber, at least 2 1/2 feet toward either first or third base and from an arm slot lower than 30 degrees. Thanks to that combination of elite extension (only Miz and Logan Gilbert get more among starters) with a flat approach angle and wide release, the baseball takes off past hitters before they can react.
Again, the point of all this is to highlight that Tolle has an outlier delivery. Tolle's style of throwing the baseball juices up his power pitcher's stuff even more. You don't want the Tolle freight train coming at you.
We want to illustrate the effects of that delivery across Tolle's arsenal. So let's focus on his two pitch types that sit on opposite ends of the spectrum: his fastball and his curveball. The swings against those two pitches reflect the consequences of Tolle's delivery.
1) Opposing hitters have bad timing against him.
Tolle's four-seam fastball has plenty of velocity, averaging just over 96 mph and touching 99-plus. But his extension makes it seem even faster, because the ball gets on the hitter quicker, and his low slot makes it look like the ball is taking off.
Hitters swing underneath Tolle's heater 58% of the time. That's a top-10 mark out of nearly 400 pitchers with at least 200 swings against one of their pitch types. Tolle's fastball is in the top tier along with pitchers like Misiorowski -- baseball's No. 1 explosive, low-slot extension monster -- Gavin Wiliams, Cam Schlittler and more.
Tolle's curveball, meanwhile, which sits around 83 mph, doesn't have a ton of movement (six inches less drop than an average curve, and an inch less horizontal break). But it gets results, too, with the funky place Tolle throws it from.
When hitters swing-and-miss vs. Tolle's curve, they whiff by an average of 6.9 inches. That's one of the biggest miss distances for any curveball in the Majors. With a breaking ball, the more you miss bats by, the nastier your pitch tends to be. Tolle's curve is nasty.
2) So those same hitters make bad swing decisions.
You could say Tolle's delivery creates deception, especially judging from the swings that come out of it.
Opposing hitters are chasing his four-seamer 35% of the time. They're chasing his curveball 45% of the time. Those are both quite high. The Major League average chase rate vs. four-seamers this season is just under 28%. Against curves, it's 31%. Tolle exceeds those marks easily.
Tolle is in the 94th percentile of all MLB pitchers this season when it comes to inducing chases. Hitters deciding to swing at all those balls outside the zone is a pretty good indicator that they're not seeing his pitches like they should.
3) And the bad swing decisions lead to empty swings.
Tolle generates a lot of whiffs, and a lot of strikeouts, on both his heater and his hook.
His four-seamer is running a 30% swing-and-miss rate, which is great for a fastball, and his curveball is running a 43% swing-and-miss rate, Tolle's highest on any one pitch type.
Tolle is holding hitters to a sub-.200 batting average on both pitches, too (.192 vs. his fastball, .169 vs. the curveball).
And his four-seamer has racked up 81 strikeouts -- more than double the K's he has on any other pitch type. That next-best pitch is his curve, with 37 strikeouts.
Those K's come in bunches thanks to the extreme, explosive delivery Tolle is able to create. Thanks to the way those pitches burst out of his left hand.