Yankees hitters vs. Baltimore Orioles’ starting rotation

Alec Asher

The only pitcher on the staff who does not throw a fastball more than 50 percent of the time is Alec Asher. Quite the opposite actually, Asher throws his fastball only around eight percent of the time. Instead, he relies primarily on his sinker; with near average speed but more than average movement.

Although not necessarily a strikeout pitch, his sinker has resulted in 22 of his 45 strikeouts recorded by Brooks Baseball. So, while Asher uses his sinker as his primary pitch, as most pitchers would use their fastball, the pitch has much more life to it than a typical fastball.

With more movement than fastballs; and most sinkers, the Yankees could see some not so appealing at-bats against Asher. The good news here is that the Yankees hit well off sinkers.

Aaron Judge is just one of the many Yankee hitters who excelled last season off sinkers. Hitting 12 home runs with a .319 batting average and a strikeout to walk ratio of .84, means Judges walks more than he strikes outs against sinkers.

That may not seem too impressive but compare that to Judge’s season strikeout to walk ratio of 1.64, almost double to that against sinkers.

Besides his sinker, Asher does not have too many somewhat decent pitches. His cutter has almost no horizontal movement to go along with an extremely high slugging percentage of .661.

As for his curveball and changeup, the former has minimal movement and about average results in all other forms. His changeup has action more similar to a two-seam fastball but has a near 50 percent ball percentage.