In the first installment of my recently finished data set of Japanese pro baseball pitches thrown from 2020 to 2024 published Wednesday, Aug. 28, I presented a table of the most effective pitches thrown in that period.
Today, the topic is the best individual arsenals. Few successful pitchers are one-trick ponies, able to get by on one pitch, even a plus-plus pitch that is tough to hit even when a batter is looking specifically for it.
Pitchers benefit from what is called in the military, a combined-arms approach, the use of various modes of lethality in mutually supporting fashion.
It is not just one great pitch, but the way pitchers use all their pitches against power and slap hitters, left-handers and right-handers, to get ahead in counts, get back into counts and finish off at-bats.
Without any further blather, here are the pitchers with the best overall arsenals over the period from 2020 to 2024. The values are given are the average change in run expectation after each pitch from that pitcher was thrown. I set the minimum here at 5,000 pitches.
I’ll follow that up with the best individual arsenals from each season in the coming days.
Overall: 2020 to 2024
| Name | Value | No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | -.020 | Split | Fast | Curve |
| Kaima Taira | -.017 | Fast | Slider | Cutter |
| Kodai Senga | -.016 | Fast | Fork | Cutter |
| Hiroto Takahashi | -.016 | Split | Fast | Cutter |
| Roki Sasaki | -.015 | Fast | Fork | Slider |
| Yudai Ono | -0.13 | Fast | 2-seam | Fork |
| Masato Morishita | -.013 | Fast | Cutter | Change |
| Tomoyuki Sugano | -.012 | Slider | Cutter | Fast |
| Hiroya Miyagi | -.012 | Fast | Slider | Curve |
| Koyo Aoyagi | -.012 | 2-seam | Slider | Fast |
| Shosei Togo | -.011 | Fast | Fork | Slider |
| Tomohisa Ozeki | -.011 | Fast | Fork | Slider |
| Shota Imanaga | -.011 | Fast | Change | Slider |
| Naoyuki Uwasawa | -.011 | Fast | Slider | Cutter |
| Shuta Ishikawa | -.010 | Fastball | Slider | Curve |
| Masashi Ito | -.010 | Fastball | Cutter | 2-seam |
| Yuya Yanagi | -.009 | Cutter | Change | Fast |
| Takayuki Kato | -.009 | Fork | Cutter | Fast |
| Hiroki Tokoda | -.009 | 2-seam | Fast | Slider |
| Kona Takahashi | -.009 | Fork | Cutter | Fast |
| Tatsuya Imai | -.009 | Fast | Slider | Change |
| Yuki Nishi | -.009 | Slider | Shoot | Change |
| Chihiro Sumida | -.009 | Fast | Slider | Curve |
| Shinnosuke Ogasawara | -.009 | Fast | Change | 2-seam |
| Hiromi Ito | -.009 | Slider | Fast | Cutter |
| Daiki Tajima | -.009 | Fast | Slider | 2-seam |
| Allen Kuri | -.009 | 2-seam | Slider | Change |
Notes
- In terms of ranking each pitcher’s best pitches, I opted to go for total value. Kodai Senga’s forkball was easily his most effective pitch, but he threw his four-seam fastball more than twice as often, so the fastball goes first with more overall value.
- Shota Imanaga’s “change” is the splitter that has made MLB hitters miserable this year.
