How Jordan Wicks Dominated the Nationals without Striking Out a Batter | Breakdown

the Cubs won 14 to1 on Sunday back-to-back sweeps an 8 and one road trip and in those nine games over 10 runs scored per game so we could sit here and we could talk about the offense but honestly the offense has become so good it's almost boring to talk about the offense 14 to one so what do I want to do I want to talk about why Jordan Wicks was so good and his return from a very long iel stint and he did it without striking out a batter without walking about her and I think what we're seeing here is an evolution of Jordan Wicks trying to figure out kind of who he is as a piture because we're going to look at this and compare it to a game in September of last year when he first became a rookie and he first came out on the scene with the Cubs and he was doing really well he was turning a lot of heads and then a game in April this year when he did have a few starts under his belt there was a different Jordan Wicks that we saw between those two games and then of course the one that we had today so I want to base it all around today's game so very first thing I want to show you is in 2024 Jordan Wix is throwing the fast ball the four seam fast ball at a crazy high rate compared to 2023 what you're looking at is here on stat cast and as you can see 46% of the time with the for seamer in 2023 only 28% of the time 28 and a half to be exact now the change up was the one that he threw the most last year not much of a drop off with that 29.7 down to 26.2 but the Sinker is the other major drop off almost 20% of the time he was throwing it last year now only 13.1% here in 2024 the cutter has basically become non-existent as a pitch and then the curveball and slider pretty much interchangeable there but you can see as well that he gained a a mile on the fast ball really uh almost a full mile on the fast ball in the off season and then with SH managa on the team and you even saw Carlos Peña before the game today compare Jordan Wicks to shoda IM managa he said if he pitches like shoda he's going to have success I I I kind of want to go on the contrary of that one and say yes to an extent the fast ball up and the change up down yes but while shoda can get some major Chase with that Jordan Wicks isn't the same kind of rising fast ball it's it's got a little bit of a rise to it as we'll see in today's game and some of the highlights but I think what you need to see is Jordan being a little bit more competitive around the Zone with that fast ball and I think that's what we were really seeing when we first saw Jordan wicks in the beginning of April here in 2024 as we look at it so let's compare it again today's game on the right on the left is April 12th against the Seattle Mariners and what we're seeing here double the number of fast balls in that one on April 12th now that game he had about 94 pitches if I'm correct on the right here today against the national was only 69 pitches so you have to keep that into account but the number of change UPS is almost the same even though he threw almost you know 20 30 more pitches in that first game and then the sinkers he doubled the number of sinkers even though he has less pitches in today's game so this is when I watched that Seattle Mariners game I really felt like Jordan Wicks was chasing the strikeout I felt like he was really really really relying on Chase which he gets a lot of if we look at his stat cast here he is one of the the top in 2023 and 2024 and getting chased because of that change up and because of that high fast ball but as you can see the chart was all over the place on April 12th he was trying to get major Chase on that high fast ball some of those pitches that you can see most of the forcing fast ball was at the top of the zone or higher whereas you see on the right hand side today's game it was really kind of middle to top of Zone and then every once in a while he would get Chase on that as we go over to the pitches that were chased you can see yes on the left hand side a lot of Chase but also a lot of pitches that were wasted there's probably about seven or eight fast balls there at the top of the zone that were just wasted whereas today there was really only one high fast ball waist there and that's why you saw him being so efficient with these pitches today as we start to watch some of the highlights guys were swinging through or fouling off this fast ball a lot like show to IM managa the difference is Jordan Wick didn't have to throw it at the top of the zone or above he like sha can get away with that fast ball middle to upper part of the Zone if he executes the other pitches the off speed lower in the zone whereas going back to the Chart here we see on April 12th he was relying a lot once again not only on Chase on the fast ball up high but on the change up in green down low look at all the chase on that chains up which is great to see but again along with a ton of Chase we also seen a ton of waste a lot of pitches being spat on in this April 12th game against the Mariners whereas over here yeah there was some change ups that weren't swung at but a lot of them were around the zone and especially just a little bit off the plate and now as we watch the highlights with the change up a lot of those change ups were rolled over they were little Choppers they were swings and misses they were foul balls a lot of these pitches here with the change up were set up very well because it wasn't extreme high with the fast ball and extreme with the change up it was kind of met in the middle it was like they were going Lane by lane and then at the end they would change directions based on whether it was the fast ball or the change up and for that reason I think that Jordan Wicks was really successful today really efficient today and now let's compare this to a game last year once again a lot more pitches on the left hand side this was in September against the Rockies he end up throwing six Innings only allowed one run as you can see with the majority of the extra pitches they were used with the Sinker same amount of change UPS about the same amount of force SE fast balls a little bit more on the cutter and the curveball but and the slider is about the same but the Sinker only 10 on the right hand side 30 on the left hand side and you can see the reason for that is because he's really pounding the low part of the Zone with the Sinker rather than trying to get that swing and miss and that chase with the high fast ball a few High fast balls there on the left hand side maybe he's trying to get about I don't know five of swings that are above the Zone where he's trying to get maybe a swing and miss or trying to get a pop out but most of the the fast ball uses is the Sinker down in the lower part of the zone is you can probably assume most of these were right-handed batters as well low and Away whereas on the right hand side a few sinkers and a lot more for seam fast balls middle to upper part of the Zone which is probably why you saw a lot of weak contact today you saw a lot of quick at bats you saw a lot of popups you saw a lot of that happening and then as we look at the swings on the left- hand side versus the right hand side you can see that he's relying mainly on Chase for the change up all of the ones on the left hand side aside for a few I believe those are curve balls in blue and green most of that is the chase only one fast ball out of the Zone all day that was a four seamer was swung at whereas today he's got about four and a lot of them again upper part of the zone so you're kind of seeing this blending of this pitcher from last year who was really reliant on the change up and the low Sinker trying to get some weak contact and ground balls where today he sees that hey I can learn from Sha I can learn from someone like that but I don't have to be exactly like him I can still rely on my Sinker I can still throw the occasional slider occasional curveball and have some success but also I don't need to strike out a bunch of guys to be able to be successful I can just locate my fastball very well we're right in middle of that that pitch trajectory the batter doesn't know is it a fast ball or is it a change up and they can get weak contact rather than needing swings and misses I think this is the evolution that you're seeing from Jordan Wicks the one thing I will say is that he got into trouble in the second inning why did he have a tough time in the second inning well you can see this leadoff hit to James Wood right down the middle fast ball right down the middle there now I said that he was getting away with some fast balls down the middle but that was just below the middle of the Zone there at 91 where the if it just missed maybe a little bit above the middle of the Zone might have been a foul ball might have been a popup might have been a weak ground ball you never know but it seems like kind of he and sha have that same type of fast ball that if you miss a little bit below the middle of the Zone it's almost like that feeds into a lot of the Batters swings but then he throws his only curveball of the game here to YZ and it gets served down the left field Line Jordan Wicks is not throwing that curveball much at all but definitely not on two strikes and I think that was where he got a little bit in trouble here was trying to go away from his strength on that pitch now I'm no pitching coach I'm no pitching expert but that's the only curveball that you saw and when you're trying to put away a batter with two strikes you're typically not throwing a pitch that you only throw two to 3% of the time and then here another pitch that he gets away with CJ Abrams misses his spot majorly you can see that Amaya is trying to set up up and he misses a little bit up way inside and gets a ton of the plate Wix is really lucky that didn't go for a three-run home run instead it goes foul so hey you got to be good you also have to be a little bit lucky too but then this is just speaking of luck a little change up off the plate well executed pitch and it goes for an infield single now once again more luck in this inning you could have seen this go a lot worse but Ruiz gets a change up way up in the zone that's the type of pitch that you want down in the dirt you want it down on the lower third part of the Zone instead it is hung and you get a great diving play a double play here from paradus turned very well and then of course later in the inning another fast ball that gets way too much of the plate and he gets lucky hap tracks it down this was the only inning that you really saw consistent misses from Jordan Wicks and for him to get away with only one run was a very big turning point in this game today what did you see let me know down in the comments I want to know this was a fun game Cubs your your one game away I I'm recording this as the Braves have yet to play today the Braves lose today I am all in it's it's a playoff run here in September but if they don't then I'm still going to be I I need to see that three game Mark I need to see us behind three games to really feel like with 25 left to play there's a real shot so Braves are playing well Padres Diamondbacks are all playing well but we'll see let me know also what you think of that in the comments are they back in the race or do you need to see a little bit more from the Cubs [Music]