For Mitch Keller, his path to success stems from determination and perseverance. The battle-tested 27-year-old is now developing into the kind of pitcher the Pittsburgh Pirates have long needed. Keller is becoming a legitimate ace.
The term “ace” seems unsuitable considering his 4.63 career ERA, prior to 2023. Nevertheless, there has been a significant difference between Keller’s past seasons and his 2023 season after working with Rapsodo’s PRO 3.0 ball flight monitor.
During the first three years of his career, Keller was not meeting major league standards and not utilizing sports science technology to his advantage. In 11 starts during his inaugural season, Keller had an ERA of 7.13. His struggles caused him to alternate between Triple-A and the big leagues.
Due to a shortened season, he only made five starts in 2020, but his 2.91 ERA indicated improvement. However, Keller had another setback in 2021 with a dreadful 6.17 ERA across 23 starts. At this point, concerns regarding Keller’s long-term career started to surface.
Despite having a fresh start in 2022, he failed to get going and spent a month in the bullpen. As the 2023 season was nearing, Keller realized he was running out of chances.
Instead of using the same offseason regimen as before, he invested in one of the largest sports analytics companies that empower athletes to improve their game through data-driven technologies and purchased the Rapsodo PRO 3.0.
Keller’s Use of Rapsodo
Before reporting to Spring Training on in February 2023, Keller wanted to expand his pitch arsenal. Keller was looking to add a sweeping slider and cutter to his repertoire, so he relied heavily on seam orientation and spin direction.
Thanks to Rapsodo’s PRO 3.0, Keller was able to gauge his progression. During and after each of his bullpen sessions, he could analyze and apply the captured data and video.
This translated over to his on-field success. Below, is a video clip that showcases Keller’s sweeping slider:
The pitch came in at 82.3 MPH, with 2774 RPMs, 39 inches of vertical break, and 22 inches of horizontal break. That is nearly two feet of horizontal break recorded on his sweeper.
While this is Keller’s go-to swing-and-miss pitch, it has positively affected his entire arsenal. For reference, the video below provides his fastball and sweeper overlay which partly translates to why he is fifth in strikeouts among all pitchers in the MLB:
Next, Keller’s cutter has been his second most utilized pitch behind his four-seam fastball. This pitch has carried a 23.1 percent Whiff% that has kept opposing hitters off balance as it has only been hit hard 22.9 percent of the time. The reason hitters cannot barrel Keller’s cutter well is displayed here:
While the cutter is not overpowering as it sits at 88.9 MPH, it carries 2633 RPMs, 32 inches of vertical break, and 5 inches of horizontal break.
Keller’s development behind the cutter and sweeper is the driving factor behind his newfound success. This has led to his growing popularity and has even attracted him to some early National League Cy Young consideration.
In what has been an erratic season for the Pirates rotation, Keller has been the lone consistency. This, along with the offseason work put in with PRO 3.0, Keller has earned himself his first All-Star appearance in Seattle.
Mitch Keller’s Statistics
Before we dive too far into Keller’s statistics, here is a comparison that shows his improvement from 2022 to 2023. Keller’s addition of PRO 3.0 during the offseason has bolstered significant results in his overall performance this year. In parentheses, is his MLB ranking:
2022 — Opening Day to All-Star Break (NOT USING Rapsodo’s Pro 3.0)
- 3 Wins (55)
- 89 IP (61)
- 4.55 ERA (56)
- 1.46 WHIP (60)
- 3.87 FIP (36)
- 77 K (50)
- 7.79 K/9 (40)
- 19.8 K% (42)
- 9 Wins (6)
- 110 IP (6)
- 3.52 ERA (27)
- 1.14 WHIP (22)
- 3.30 FIP (11)
- 125 K (5)
- 10.23 K/9 (12)
- 27.3 K% (14)
By simply analyzing basic statistics it is evident that Keller has made a drastic shift in the 2023 season thus far after deploying Rapsodo’s PRO 3.0. To support the case more, here are some data visualizations specifically outlining just how important his cutter and sweeper have been to his success. The first visualization was Keller’s 2022 pitch arsenal breakdown when he had just five different offerings:
Next, is his 2023 pitch arsenal breakdown that exposes his brand-new cutter and revamped slider, the sweeper:
Keller’s cutter is highlighted in blue because it was the add-on pitch from 2022. His strike% and ball% are boxed in blue to fully note how the different pitch variations are making it seamlessly hard for hitters to swing the bat since Keller’s pitches look the same coming out of his hand but end up having different movements.
That works itself into a high called strike rate which he has used to massively improve. The scatter plot below explains why he is ranked first among all qualified pitchers in strikeouts looking at 52:
Just behind Keller in strikeouts looking is a five-time all-star and arguably one of the most dominant pitchers in the entire league, Gerrit Cole. The two are quite comparable. Below, the resemblance can be seen:
With this type of trajectory and further use of Rapsodo’s Pro 3.0, Keller is heading toward a large extension very soon.
Conclusion
With the help of Rapsodo’s PRO 3.0, Keller added a cutter onto his sinker as a variation of the fastball along with a sweeping slider as a variation of the breaking ball. This has truly redefined who Keller is as a pitcher.
By trusting the data-driven technology that PRO 3.0 provides, Keller was able to encounter certain information that the human eye fails to detect. By adding and refining pitches, this has led to many firsts including being the Opening Day starter, throwing a complete game shutout, and most recently, being selected to represent the Pirates in the upcoming All-Star game.
If anything, this case study should be an indicator to MLB organizations and players to get more involved with Rapsodo baseball products so they can reap similar benefits.
Interested in adding Rapsodo to your player development program? Email sales@rapsodo.com and our team will walk you through the process!
Data Sources and References:
Fangraphs
MLB Film Room
Eno Sarris
