The Phillies are blessed to have three ace-type pitchers atop their starting rotation. Having Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo and Zack Wheeler should make everyone feel a little better about their playoff chances, so long as they a) get there, and b) hit.
Focusing in more on Luzardo and Sanchez, they each possess a pitcher that is considered among the game’s elite, Luzardo and his sweeper, Sanchez and his changeup. Which one is better?
By Statcast, Luzardo has the best sweeper in the game among qualified
pitchers, a +19 run value on the pitch. Sanchez ranks second among those that have thrown a qualified changeup, coming in with a +12 on his particular pitch. Head over to Fangraphs, by Stuff+, Sanchez’s 123 is second for changeups. They do not rank sweepers there, instead calling Luzardo’s a sweeper and that Stuff+ comes in at 122, seventh in the game. So, there’s some disagreement there about which is better.
What say you?
