 Sometimes small ball can play pretty big, especially when you let foul ball bunts become run-scoring triples This breakdown is brought to you by draft Kings. It's good. Let's get into it Andrew Heaney is on the bump. He has turned his career around more on that after the fun stuff We got Nemo at the plate a 2-2 count He sends it back where it came from the old hitting machine drill put it back in the machine kid Freeman says, what are you looking at up there? What you got and he says I you're so silly Freddy and I was checking on him at first check and I'm looking to catch Yeah, that pitch but I'm gonna check on him one more time and the bunt down the line now Heaney decides to play it and throws it away Which turns that into a run-scoring triple? Nemo's gonna go around third. He's gonna score Marte gets to third base if you're Very new to baseball and you're like, what do you mean? Well, you see how Freddy Freeman the first baseman is putting his hand up right here like let it go, you know Like leave it leave it. Oh shit. Okay. You're playing it That's because that ball was gonna go foul It it only matters where the ball is when the fielder touches it and he needs like oh Maybe that would have went foul Maybe it's all coming back to me now I didn't have to make the heroic backhanded toss because that ball was gonna hit the grass usually gets Go foul usually gets the lip of the grass gives it a little ramp, you know more that way So it hits there if that goes untouched. Maybe it spins back. I think you take that risk because this is not really a likely play and Then in the first inning the Mets have a run Don't tell strider this they got lucky again a little bit of a misplay by the heen dog and now they're set up They have the run. They have a runner on third. No outs. He needs shook He's going slider slider fastball for a strike to Lindor's back to the slider hits him in the foot So now he's on first base But before Lindor goes the first base he goes along so he loves that slider right now He loves that slide right now be ready for the slider So Alonzo is in there ready for the slider gets a fastball. He's like, okay regroup Find yourself think about it. Maybe he'll come fastball now get ready to hit it He's gonna put it right there right there smack it again. Where's he gonna put it right there? And it's all mine one two three Kaboom swung through it something I noticed when making this I've never seen the Digital strike zone actually shift so this is actually Lindor strike zone Alonzo's bigger and watch it See I'd shift it up right there mid-pitch Graphics team just getting it done. Do do do do do do Lindor. Okay, look at the ump dancing the ump Anyway got the fastball swung right through it damn Damn, okay, right there Right there gets another fastball Another fastball that was the one he wanted and then he's sitting slider with two strikes never got a fastball Never got a slider bad advice was waiting for it next batter comes up another big old guy swings at the fastball Doesn't swing at the fastball. It's one in one swings over the slider and now Frankie Lindor saying let's make some action I'm gonna run to second Marta you go home Marta you Marta you didn't You didn't go anywhere They threw to Marta didn't know the play was on he didn't know what was going on Lindor looks at after getting tagged like dude Thought we were gonna make something happen buck little upset now Heen dog comes back with a fastball He's one strike away from getting out of the inning and he gets it. He goes up top fuck But he's mad at himself now I told you I was gonna talk about heen dog and how his era is just drastically Improved this year and what has made that happened because I like this stuff. You're gonna like it watch this his pitch percentage over the his years has changed drastically in 2022 he was curveball 22% of the time last season with the change up at 18 And he started throwing a slider at the very end of last year when he got traded to the Yankees now He's slider 33% of the time. He doesn't throw a curveball anymore in the chains up dropped It's basically a two-pitch pitcher This is his game log at the end of the year last year when the Yankees were trying to get him to Throw what they call a sweeper a sweeping slider Seem shifted wake is the science term and he was trying to but couldn't really figure it out Worked on it over the offseason and now it's his pitch and this is the vertical break So the up and down break some sliders dart down some just sweep across and stay lateral This is the difference so last year his curveball and his slider were We're pretty like up and down break they would drop a lot They would fall off the table now his slider doesn't have that much break at all. It's kind of flat It's just left to right movement and his Velo is way up. He's throwing this pitch Not what not way up. Sorry. He's throwing it three miles per hour faster, but he's throwing it harder So here's what it looks like the angels pitcher Heaney is throwing a curveball The Dodgers pitcher Heaney is throwing a slider and it's a slight difference But you can see the numbers with your eyes if you look at it So there's one ball that kind of pops up out of his hand and then comes down That's the curveball right the new pitch kind of darts out of his hand. It's the slider So the one on the left is the curve pops out of his hand and then comes down the one on the Inside was the slider. You might be wondering that really makes that big of a difference. Why well on its own It doesn't but all secondary and breaking pitches exist because they play off the fastball So this is 2021 how his curveball played off his fastball the curveball Separates right away. They don't tunnel at all. It pops out of his hand Look, they're separate right away and hitters look like that the curveball will just pop out of his hand They're not on the same plane. So it's easy for batters to identify if they could curveball fastball Watch the pitches that we just watched to rough in this breakdown the slider and the fastball They Come out together. They don't separate till they're halfway out of the hand Especially you can't even tell he's throwing two different pitches here. It just looks like one long blur so that's called tunneling and That is why the slider that he has this year is so much more effective than his curve last year Here's side by side on the left You have the curveball and the fastball on the right You have the slider and the fastball and see on the left. They're already separated Hitters that are really honed in can already pick it apart Now the slider is still together at this point with the fastball Now the slider is starting to break off on the right and the curveball is way apart And that's the difference and that stuff is really cool I love when guys change their pitch mix and figure it out So kudos to heaney you made a dumb play but you're having a phenomenal season because you put in the work And you use the knowledge to benefit you this breakdown is brought to you by draft kings Thank you very much to draft kings for sponsoring the breakdown Good stuff heen dog