Prep Baseball Report

PBR Introduces Hammer Score


Zach Day / Joe Dattoli
Senior Advisor / West Coast Operations Director

Hammer Quantified

Until now, the word 'hammer' has been used to describe a very good breaking ball that drops vertically with velocity through the strike zone. PBR’s goal is to define and quantify hammer breaking balls to be able to more effectively compare and evaluate breaking balls with vertical-drop movement across multiple levels.

A curveball with a higher hammer score has the potential to generate more Whiffs, especially when paired with fastball velocity and fastball movements like Hop and Rise. Hammer and Hop are what Craig Kimbrel has used to dominate hitters across his entire career. 

What is a Hammer? 

Hammer is defined as a breaking ball that drops vertically with velocity through the strike zone. Other movement adjectives include 12-to-6. 

Hammer Score

Using key metrics from pitch data, PBR has developed a Hammer score to easily compare breaking balls across multiple levels. 

Hammer+ Stats

The Hammer+ stat takes and normalizes our Hammer score across an entire level. Hammer+ is calculated by dividing a Pitcher’s Hammer by the mean Hammer of the level of play and multiplying by 100. In other words, the mean Hop is set to 100 and 1 unit above or below that is equal to being 1% above or below that mean for the level of play.

MLB Hammer Leaders 2021


Rank Pitcher Hammer+
1 Dillon Maples 158
2 Seth Lugo 156
3 Tyler Glasnow 154
4 Garrett Richards 153
5 Ryan Pressly 151
6 Trevor Bauer 150
7 Jimmy Nelson 148
8 Trent Thornton 141
9 Alex Reyes 140
10 Tommy Nance 140
11 Joe Kelly 138
12 Andre Scrubb 137
13 Sean Newcomb 137
14 Dylan Cease 135
15 Lance McCullers Jr. 135
16 Walker Buehler 134
17 Dustin May 133
18 Corey Knebel 132
19 Joe Musgrove 132
20 Charlie Morton 132
21 Nick Pivetta 132
22 Bryan Abreu 131
23 Gerrit Cole 131
24 Shane Baz 131
25 Chris Stratton 130

 

MLB Hammer Leaders 2015-2021

 

Rank Pitcher Year Hammer+
1 Garrett Richards 2018 169
2 Garrett Richards 2020 166
3 Seth Lugo 2016 164
4 Garrett Richards 2017 164
5 Joe Kelly 2018 159
6 Dillon Maples 2021 158
7 Joe Kelly 2019 157
8 Seth Lugo 2019 157
9 Seth Lugo 2021 156
10 Garrett Richards 2015 156
11 Tyler Glasnow 2021 154
12 Seth Lugo 2020 153
13 Garrett Richards 2021 153
14 Ryan Pressly 2020 153
15 Tyler Glasnow 2019 152
16 Ryan Pressly 2019 152
17 Ryan Pressly 2021 151
18 Tyler Glasnow 2020 151
19 Alex Reyes 2020 151
20 Trevor Bauer 2021 150
21 Bryan Abreu 2019 149
22 Clarke Schmidt 2020 149
23 Ryan Pressly 2018 149
24 Taylor Guerrieri 2019 148
25 Jimmy Nelson 2021 148

 

Summary 

With the Hammer+ stat, we now have a simple way to objectively compare breaking balls with hammer traits between levels and over time. The effectiveness of a breaking ball is very dependent on outside factors including location and pitch repertoire. In general, breaking balls with higher Hammer+ are more difficult to hit than breaking balls with a lower hammer score. 

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