Sandy Alcantara 🇩🇴 (2022)

Sandy Alcántara Montero (San Juan de la Maguana, September 7, 1995) is a Dominican pitcher.

In 2022, he had a record of 14-9 with an ERA of 2.28 in 32 starts, covering 228.2 innings, 207 strikeouts and WHIP of 0.980. On November 16, 2022, he was unanimously elected as the winner of the National League Cy Young Award, becoming the third Dominican to win this award.

This analysis covers in detail his pitching arsenal and his effectiveness against rivals. It also compares his numbers with other pitchers, allowing us to assess his performance and determine if Alcantara deserves the Cy Young award.

If you have any questions regarding the types of pitches (Fastball, Changeup, etc.), here is all the necessary information

Enjoy it 🙌

The data provided is from Baseball Savant

1- Defensive power

With 3248 pitches, Alcantara was able to strike out 207 opponents, ranking 8th in strikeouts in 2022. The pitches he used the most were Changeup with 27.56%, FS Fastball with 25.13%, and Sinker with 24.98% of the total. He had an average of 14.20 pitches per inning, which was the lowest in 2022 season. Alcantara allowed 174 hits, 32 doubles, 6 triples, and 16 home runs.

Also, He finished first in WAR for pitchers with 7.8. This stat provides a quantitative measure of how much value a pitcher contributes to their team based on their performance on the field. (according toBaseball Reference)

In the chart below, we can see that the vast majority of his pitches were outside the strike zone. This reflects his control in attempting to strike out the opponent as quickly as possible or, at the very least, to have a two-strike count on the opponent to gain control of the situation.

In those areas outside the strike zone, the type of pitch he threw the most was the FS Fastball with 203 pitches, he threw 236 Sliders in the lower right corner on the outer part of the plate, and in the other corner was 227 pitches with Changeup.(the chart is oriented from the catcher's perspective)

Alcantara threw 1007 balls and 938 strikes, of which 53% were called strikes and 47% swinging strikes.

In the chart below, we can see each type of pitch and how many Walks, Strikeouts, and hits each one had.

The most effective pitch for striking out batters was the Changeup with 78 strikeouts, followed by the Slider with 58. Both pitches were crucial in dominating opponents by throwing outside the strike zone to deceive the rival.

On the other hand, the Sinker was not as effective, as it had the most hits allowed, and also had the highest walk count with 16.

To complement this data, we will see in the following charts the strike percentage, and in another graph, each count and the type of pitch, to see which pitch resulted in getting the opponents out.

The Strikes % per Count shows that he rarely reached a 3-2 count against his opponents, reflecting both his low pitch count per inning and the probability of his opponents making contact. 28.78% of the total strikes were with the Changeup, while the other types of pitches, except for the Curveball, are at a similar level of usage when it comes to getting strikes.

It's important to note that this chart takes into account both called strikes and swinging strikes.

Also, we can see that a significant portion of his strikes were in the lower part of the strike zone and the lower outside of the strike zone.

This also depends on the opponent he was facing, but it is evident that his general intentions were to target the lower zone with pitches like Slider and Changeup.(the chart is oriented from the catcher's perspective)

Below, we can see that Alcantara would start with any of his pitches, which also reflects the importance of the Changeup in striking out his opponents. A significant portion of his pitches in 1-0, 1-1, and 1-2 counts were with the Slider.

Overall, his pitches are well distributed, with the Changeup as his finishing pitch and the Slider to put the opponent in a 2-strike count.

Among the combined sum of hit attempts and strikes, the highest percentage belongs to strikes with 60.21%, and attempts (which resulted in hits, outs, etc) with 39.79%.

This graph below shows his dominance in getting strikes and his low tendency to allow contact. We can see that in 0-0 counts, he had a low probability of allowing contact (6.35%).

Now, to give you a visual reference of his Changeup, I'm providing this video(from youtube) with a compilation of those pitches.

A changeup is thrown with a different grip than a fastball, usually with three fingers placed on the ball, and it is intended to be thrown at a significantly slower speed compared to the fastball. Changeups are typically 10 to 15 MPH slower than the pitcher's fastball, providing a change of pace that can deceive the batter.

In the graph below (provided by Baseball Savant), we can see that all of his pitch types are above the MLB average velocity(the gray lines).

His favorite pitch, the Changeup, averages 91.8 mph. Additionally, on the chart to the right, we can observe the vertical and horizontal movement of the ball, making his Changeup slightly more "curved" than the FS Fastball(look at the video above for reference!).

This demonstrates how dangerous this pitch is, as it initially appears to be coming at 98 mph (its average FS Fastball velocity in 2022) but ends up being a slower pitch.

This reflects why Alcantara used the Changeup to strike out his opponents.

In the last chart, the percentage of batting average of the opponents faced by Alcantara with his favorite pitch, the Changeup, is shown.

The chart indicates that very few batters were able to hit successfully (shown by the red squares), highlighting its significance in deceiving the opponents who had no choice but to take a swing to see if they could make good contact. (the green line is the strike zone)

Considering that Alcantara had a Poor/Weak rival average of 6.1%(one of the lowest averages in this category in 2022), It means that 6.1% of the times they managed to hit, the contacts were weak or poorly adjusted.

For reference, a batter who maintains an AVG of .250 is considered good.

2- Allowed Hits

Before displaying the allowed hits, I would like to present a comparison between his Hits vs Batted Ball Attempts for each pitch type to showcase the impressive extent of Alcantara's dominance. First, let me show you a spray heatmap chart to see where the hits or batted ball attempts landed.

The majority of his hits were in the infield (reflected by the red color)

Among both events, only 28,02% resulted in hits, while 71.98% were batted ball attempts. Also, the majority were ground balls at 54.19%, followed by fly balls at 19.84%.

A 23.4% of his events were strikeouts, in addition to having a .212 opponent batting average, with an average exit velocity of hits at 87.8 mph (ranking 28th in 2022).

It's worth noting that when batters faced Alcantara, 38.5% of his hits were over 95 mph (ranking 48th), and there were 33 Barrels. It's a substantial amount for a pitcher like Sandy Alcantara.

In technical terms, a batter is considered to achieve a "barrel" when the combination of launch angle and exit velocity of the ball is optimal. This often generates solid hits that have a high probability of resulting in powerful hits, such as extra bases or even home runs.

It's worth mentioning that his average allowed hits measured by Launch Angle(°) was 5.5 degrees, ranking him 7th. Now, we'll focus on his allowed hits and take a look at a radial graph depicting the hits.

This graph is designed to display the allowed hits with their respective launch angle and exit velocity (mph), providing a reference, it's worth noting that the ideal range for hitting a home run falls between 25° and 35° launch angle. Considering this, it's noteworthy that he was the pitcher who allowed 67 runs(ranking 47th with most allowed runs) and ranked 16th for the most hits allowed during the regular season(174 hits).

3- Cy Young Award

As the unanimous winner of the Cy Young award, Alcantara became a finalist alongside Julios Urias (Dodgers) and Max Fried (Braves), recording 6 complete games and 14 games of at least eight innings.

Additionally, his 2.28 ERA ranked second in the National League, just behind Urias' 2.16, and he kept batters to an average of .212. Now, I will show you some advanced stats that demonstrate why he was the winner(and probably the best in the MLB).

These stats below (Opponent Sweet Spot % and Average Launch Angle %) showcase his great mastery in pitching the ball, considering that Sweet Spot % represents the percentage of hits that have been perfectly connected. He ranks 4th in the lowest averages in this category.

On the right-hand side, it reflects the average launch angle of hits that were connected against him, with an incredibly low average of 5.50 degrees.

This demonstrates that, in general, the hits that were connected against Alcantara were almost at ground level and were not elevated enough to potentially result in doubles, triples, or home runs.

Considering that the range for a home run is between 25 to 35 degrees (depending on the power, obviously), this indicates his ability to keep the batted balls in unfavorable launch angles for the hitters.

And finally, his average Changeup and FS Fastball velocity, ranking in the top 3 in both categories.

2022 highlights: