Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff is a 30 year old veteran who is a two time All-Star and former fifth place Cy Young award runner up. He has a bulldog mentality on the mound and tends to over power hitters with his fastball. This offseason, he made a change to his two-seam fastball grip by watching Clay Holmes on YouTube and trying to emulate his spin.
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff changed his fastball by watching YouTube videos of Clay Holmes.
Last September, Brandon Woodruff changed his changeup grip right before a start at Coors. It worked.
This off-season, he switched up his two-seam by watching Clay Holmes videos to try and emulate his spin.
On how an elite starter stays elite:https://t.co/u7S5YzfCua
— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) March 17, 2023
From studying YouTube clips to shifting grips, here’s how Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff stays dominant: https://t.co/hZwodea9k6 via @journalsentinel
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) March 17, 2023
Last year, Brandon Woodruff ranked in the 72nd percentile in regards to fastball spine rate. His fastball spun at 2350 revolutions per minute, which was on par with his 2021 spin rate. Where he ends up in 2023 will be worth monitoring given that it was an area of focus for him this past offseason.
Looking back at Woodruff’s fastball in 2022, of his 190 total strikeouts, 98 of them came courtesy of the heater. Opposing batters hit just .184 against his fastball and they whiffed on it 28.5% of the time.
It appears that a goal of Brandon Woodfuff’s offseason was to make his already dominant fastball even better. He’s refined his off speed pitches over the past few off-seasons that includes a curveball, slider, and changeup. If he’s able to find even more success with his best pitch, that could spell trouble for the rest of the league.
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