Koji now has allowed a .953 OPS over the past 28 days, encompassing nine games and 36 PA. His season OPS allowed is a still-respectable .699, but his ERA of 4.78 and FIP of 3.73 are career worsts, as are his HR/9 of 1.7 and BB/9 of 2.7. He's still striking lots of people out, so there's that.
The PitchFX story is not encouraging either. According to Brooks Baseball, his FB velocity has fallen every year since his magical 2013 (90 to 89 to 88 to 87.5 this year). The core of the problem, though, seems to be his splitter. Its velocity has fallen along with that of the FB--it's now a sub-80mph pitch for the first time--but there has also been a slight but perhaps crucial decrease in its downward movement from month to month this year. A splitter that's just a little slower and breaks just a little less sharply out of the zone is, perhaps, a splitter that's a lot more hittable. Certainly batters have been hitting it: SLG by month on the splitter has been .060, .520, .710.
Is this the promis'd end? Or image of that horror? Discuss.
The PitchFX story is not encouraging either. According to Brooks Baseball, his FB velocity has fallen every year since his magical 2013 (90 to 89 to 88 to 87.5 this year). The core of the problem, though, seems to be his splitter. Its velocity has fallen along with that of the FB--it's now a sub-80mph pitch for the first time--but there has also been a slight but perhaps crucial decrease in its downward movement from month to month this year. A splitter that's just a little slower and breaks just a little less sharply out of the zone is, perhaps, a splitter that's a lot more hittable. Certainly batters have been hitting it: SLG by month on the splitter has been .060, .520, .710.
Is this the promis'd end? Or image of that horror? Discuss.