The Chicago White Sox haven’t had much go their way this year, and that includes the pitching department. Only Garrett Crochet (4.4) and the since-traded Erick Fedde (2.6) have produced as much as 1.3 WAR. Those things said, a few young pitchers have shown promise, one of them being 24-year-old rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon. Over 119 2/3 innings, the 2022 third-round pick out of the University of Georgia has logged a 4.37 ERA, a 4.57 FIP, and 1.2 WAR — not sexy numbers, but thanks to a five-pitch mix and a cerebral approach to his craft, his potential is real. Prior to the season, Eric Longenhagen assigned Cannon a 45 FV, calling him “a high-floored no. 4/5 starter prospect thanks to his repertoire depth and command.”
Cannon discussed his M.O. on the mound when the White Sox visited Fenway Park earlier this month.
———
David Laurila: You’re primarily known for your sinker, which you’ve thrown more than any of your other pitches this season. It’s also the pitch you’ve had the least success with from a statistical standpoint. Why is that?
Jonathan Cannon: “For the most part, it’s been the command of it being bad. If you look at the best sinkerballers in the game right now — I’m thinking guys like Logan Webb — what makes their sinkers so good is they do a really good job of commanding it down-and-away to righties. It kind of sets up everything else. When they’re missing, they’re missing down, but more middle. Right now, I feel like I command the outer half well, but a lot of them are elevated to around thigh high. When it leaks into the middle and is thigh high, I don’t get a lot of groundballs with it. That’s kind of been the main focus for me. When I do miss, I want to miss where I’m getting a groundball rather than a hard line drive into the gap.
“That’s one of the reasons I’ve increased the usage of my changeup. I wasn’t throwing it a whole lot at beginning of the year, but then I started having good results with it after trying it in some more counts. I’ve been tying to get the rest of my pitches more involved. That’s why you’ve seen an uptick in the use of the four-seamer as well. It’s not a good pitch by itself; it doesn’t have a lot of vert, and I don’t have a great approach angle, but because I throw a lot that moves at the bottom, I get good results on the four-seamer. I’m kind of trying to get away from using the sinker too much.”
Laurila: What are the metrics on your sinker?
Cannon: “It’s anywhere from two to four vert, and 15 horizontal. The metrics on it are good. It’s more that the usage has maybe been a little bit too much, and again, the location hasn’t always been great. Something I had to learn when I got here is that while in the minor leagues I could rip that thing right down the middle and get a groundball most of the time, but against these guys, when it gets thigh high and above they’re pretty good at hitting it in the air.
“I was always taught to throw sinkers underneath the hands of righties, bury it down-and-in. Up here, looking at the analytics of where guys hit sinkers well… generally speaking, they hit down-and-in pretty well, no matter what pitch it is. So, we have to command down-and-away, and up-and-in on lefties to front-hip them. That’s kind of been the main thing, figuring out how to command it.”
Laurila: You don’t throw many sinkers to lefties. Why?
Cannon: “I don’t know what the numbers are, but lefties have to be hitting north of .400 against my sinker. It just kind of falls into the path of their barrel. Even when I put one down-and-away they tend to hit it well. That’s why I’ve tried to use more four-seams and cutters, to get up-and-in on their hands. That also kind of opens it up a little bit down-and-away. The sinker up-and-in to lefties, in my opinion, is the toughest pitch to throw. But that’s really the only place you can throw it consistently and they won’t hit it hard.
“I watch a lot of Logan Webb. I feel like we pitch very similarly, and the sinker up-and-in is a key to his arsenal against lefties, because everything he throws is kind of moving down in the zone. He’s got the really good changeup, the good sweeper, the good sinker. By throwing the sinker up-and-in, he backs guys up. He stands them up. If you’re just throwing everything down in the zone, guys get their eyes down there and you get some good takes. You’ve got to make them reset that a little bit.
“Against Baltimore the other day, I was able to throw the sinker up-and-in, which got them off of everything else. When I’m throwing both that and the cutter up-and-in, it becomes sort of a guessing game for them as to which way it’s going to move. I was also able to throw more four-seams against Baltimore, which we figured we needed to get more involved.”
Laurila: Do you see yourself transitioning toward more fours and fewer twos?
Cannon: “Not at all. I think the sinker and sweeper are too good to go away from. Against Baltimore, it was one of those things where I was going to throw some fours until they adjusted to it, but they weren’t able to adjust to it, so I kept throwing it.”
Laurila: Why do you feel they weren’t able to adjust?
Cannon: “I think it just had to do with the scouting report. Looking at my scouting reports against left-handed hitters, what I would do is look for something kind of thigh high, middle-away. I’d look changeup in the zone and sinker down-and-away, and then just kind of fight off the cutter. Anything coming in on you is probably going to be a ball. That’s why I got a lot of takes on the sinker up-and-in. And because I don’t really throw anything up-and-away, four-seamers there kind of surprised them.”
Laurila: How do you balance prioritizing your best pitches with utilizing your entire arsenal?
Cannon: “It’s one of those things where you have to constantly be adjusting. I became really heavy with a sinker/sweeper combo to righties, and it kind of became ‘Let’s eliminate one of them and just look for one pitch.’ I had an at-bat against James McCann where I threw him a couple of really good sweepers and he was able to take them because he was looking sweeper. But I was able to jam a sinker up-and-in to get him out a couple of times. Same thing with [Coby] Mayo. Going up-and-in with the four and up-and-in with the sinker got them off everything else. The sweeper is my best pitch to righties, so I can’t allow them to eliminate it.”
Laurila: Any final thoughts?
Cannon: “Analytically, all of my pitches are in a good spot. It’s just about figuring the best way to use them in order to get hitters out consistently. I’ve been learning a lot this year.”
