Noah Cameron's changeup, Luzardo's RHH approach, Valdez's curveball
Corbin Young examines Noah Cameron, Jesús Luzardo, and Framber Valdez for Thursday's starting pitcher notes.
Noah Cameron threw six scoreless innings against the Cardinals. He leaned on his slider (25% SwK) to lead his arsenal in whiffs, which he tossed 2.5 mph harder on Thursday.
There's a chance Cameron's slider and cutter merged on Thursday, and it could be a pitch classification issue. However, Cameron generated whiffs via his harder slider low and inside to RHH. Cameron consolidated his four-seam and slider usage against left-handed hitters on Thursday, though he typically mixed in four pitches over 10% of the time.
Jesús Luzardo was rocked against the Blue Jays on Thursday. The Blue Jays stacked RHH against Luzardo, and he struggled, mainly because they attacked his primary pitches by making contact while in the zone.
Unfortunately, Luzardo only had one pitch (slider) that performed relatively well against right-handed hitters before Thursday, with a .179 wOBA (.221 xwOBA). The rest of Luzardo's arsenal against righties led to a wOBA of .315 or higher.
In previous seasons, Luzardo's changeup has been his other offering with whiffs and quality results. However, Luzardo probably threw his changeup too often in the zone against the Blue Jays, tossing it 62% of the time. For context, Luzardo threw his changeup in the zone against right-handed hitters around 38-40% of the time.
Framber Valdez led Thursday with 23 whiffs (23.2% SwK), mainly via his curveball, generating 18 whiffs (40% SwK). Valdez had 20 or more whiffs for the 6th time in his career, and the third-most with the most whiffs since July 2024.
Valdez lowered his sinker usage for a balanced approach against right- and left-handed hitters, with mostly curveballs and sinkers. Meanwhile, Valdez sprinkled in a changeup to right-handed hitters.
Valdez has been a model of consistency with the xERA aligning with the outcomes. That's especially true since Valdez's skills aligned with his results. When Valdez's curveball is cooking, it can be nasty.