But up until this season, Liriano had still been able to have success because he had such a high chase rate. Prior to this season, Liriano had been one of the best pitchers in baseball at getting hitters to chase pitches outside the zone. The Pirates also hoped that Liriano would benefit from working with catcher Russell Martin, whom they had also just signed and similarly targeted for his then-under-the-radar pitch-framing abilities. “He’s a good pitcher,” Martin said in a longer interview with The Star on Tuesday. Martin worked his game-calling magic to get Liriano to abandon his four-seam fastball in favour of his sinker, while also increasing his use of his off-speed pitches.

Source: thestar August 03, 2016 00:45 UTC