Tayler Scott is having a career-best season, and the primary reason is equal parts straightforward and confounding. Thirteen years after being drafted by the Chicago Cubs out of a Scottsdale, Arizona high school, and five years after making his major league debut with the Seattle Mariners, the 32-year-old native of Johannesburg, South Africa is finally featuring his best pitch. Now with the Houston Astros — his 10th big league organization — Scott has put his two-seamer in his back pocket and is throwing a heavy dose of four-seamers.
The numbers speak for themselves. Coming into the current campaign, the right-hander had made 39 big league appearances and logged a 9.00 ERA over 46 innings. This year, Scott has come out of the Astros bullpen 53 times and boasts a 1.86 ERA over 58 innings. Moreover, he has allowed just 32 hits and has a 26% strikeout rate. His seven relief wins are a team high.
Again, the four-seamer — a pitch he’d thrown sparingly in the past — has played a huge role in his success. Per Statcast, he’s throwing the pitch 47.4% of the time to the tune of a .120 BAA and a .265 SLG. Augmenting the offering is a new-ish splitter that has yielded a .122 BAA and a 184 SLG, as well as a slider (.220 BA,.339 SLG) he views as his third option.
Scott shared the story behind his fastball changeover, including why his four-seamer is so effective despite ranking in the 29th percentile for velocity, when the Astros visited Fenway Park earlier this month.
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David Laurila: You began featuring a four-seamer this year and are having by far the best season of your career. Given that your 92.6 mph velocity is well below the big league average, what makes it so effective?
Tayler Scott: “I learned about vertical approach angle, which is guys with lower slots throwing four-seams up in the zone and creating a flatter angle for the four-seams coming to the plate. They’ve discovered that gets a lot of swings and misses. That’s when I started to throw four-seams. Over the last couple years, it was a pitch that I kind of only used late in counts to strike guys out; I would never really throw it at other times. One reason is that I tended to have a hard time locating it in the strike zone.
“That’s one thing that has changed from last year to this year. They kind of said to me, ‘You should probably start living with your best pitches more often,’ and that meant throwing it all the time. I just needed to learn how to locate it in the zone better. Once I started doing that, I started having the success I’ve been having.”
Laurila: Do you get much ride with your four-seamer?
Scott: “From my slot, I don’t really know if it’s good or bad. But in general, compared to every four-seam fastball, it’s pretty bad. I might get 10 [inches] induced vertical break on it. Maybe that’s a lot from my slot, but when a fastball gets 10 and below it’s kind of considered a sinker. So, I’m basically throwing a sinker up there, but because of my slot it looks like it’s riding. It’s a four-seamer that’s moving like a sinker would, but because of the angle it’s perceived visually to be moving differently than it actually is. It’s one of those things where it’s hard to justify whether a four-seam is good or bad just from looking at it on paper. All that really matters is what the hitter sees, how it is perceived by the hitter.”
Laurila: I assume you’ve talked to hitters about what they see?
Scott: “I’ve talked to a couple of guys about it. Like I said, it’s kind of that visual where you think it’s going to be in one spot and it kind of never ends up in that spot. It just keeps riding up and rising.”
Laurila: You’ve been in pro ball for a long time, yet have had limited big league opportunities — and not nearly this much success — prior to this season. Would it be a different story had you been throwing four-seamers up in the zone five to 10 years ago?
Scott: “Definitely. I hadn’t known what my best pitch was. People were looking at the numbers when TrackMan came out and were like, ‘Oh, your sinker is moving this much, so it must be your best pitch.’ But when it came to performance in the big leagues… I like to call it predictable movement. You see guys from my slot throwing sinkers and it’s predictable. You know which way it’s going to move. But with a four-seam from my slot, it’s not predictable. You don’t expect the ball to move that way, and that’s where hitters kind of get messed up with it.”
Laurila: Are you throwing any two-seamers at all this season?
Scott: “I still have my sinker. I’ll throw it every now and then to get guys off my four-seam, but not nearly as much as I used to.”
Laurila: How much does your two-seamer differ from your four-seamer in movement?
Scott: “I think there are about eight or nine inches of difference in vert, with roughly the same amount of run. But really, it’s just kind of a show-me pitch to get guys to not just sit on the same pitch. Again, the sinker is kind of predictable for hitters. If they recognize it, they can expect the ball to move a certain way when I throw it.”
Laurila: What else are you throwing besides the four-seamer and the occasional sinker?
Scott: “A split. I have a slider as well, which I was relying on a lot for the past couple of years but am not throwing as much now. The split is new from last year. I could never figure out a changeup from my slot. Either I couldn’t slow it down, or because of the way my hand pronated, I couldn’t figure out the movement. The only way to go was to throw a split, which I more or less figured out on my own. Grip-wise, it’s pretty standard.”
Laurila: You played in Japan in 2020 and 2021, where the splitter is a popular pitch. Did you tinker with one while you there?
Scott: “Yeah, I started trying to throw one, but in Japan my arm slot was a little higher, so it was a little bit of a different feel, whereas the last couple years I’ve gone back to my natural slot, which is lower. It’s a little bit easier to throw a split from a lower slot.”
Laurila: Why was your arm slot higher in Japan?
Scott: “I don’t really know. I think I was just going through a little tough spot and trying to figure out my mechanics, how I was throwing the ball. In Japan, a lot of guys throw over the top, so from watching all of those guys and getting feedback from the coaches, I kind of just naturally went higher. Once I came back, I started going more to my natural slot and embracing that.”
Laurila: Any final thoughts on pitching, either about you specifically or in general?
Scott: “One thing we don’t talk about enough in today’s age of pitching is focusing on having good misses. When you miss, have a good miss. That means when I’m throwing a four-seam top of the zone, it’s either top of the zone or just above the zone. It’s never below. When you focus on having good misses you stay out of the middle of the plate a lot more and start having fewer mistakes that hitters are able to do damage on. That makes a big difference.
“I think a lot of guys get locked in on not wanting to walk guys. They’re wanting to just throw strikes, so they kind of give in and let their stuff miss over the plate. They run into trouble that way. I want to throw strikes, but I’m willing to throw pitches that aren’t strikes.”
