Logan Webb Talks Pitching

Logan Webb was my pick for NL Cy Young last season, and while the prediction didn’t come to fruition, the San Francisco Giants right-hander did come close to capturing the honor — this despite an 11-13 record. (We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?) He finished second in the voting to Blake Snell, who is now his rotation mate, and while Webb’s major league-leading 216 innings certainly captured the attention of the electorate, many of his other numbers stood out as well. He ranked fourth among qualified National League pitchers in both ERA (3.25) and FIP (3.16), and his 1.29 walks per nine innings was second to none. Moreover, his 62.1% groundball rate was the highest in either league.

He hardly came out of nowhere. Webb was already good, as his stats over the past three seasons attest. Since the beginning of the 2021 campaign, he has a 3.07 ERA and a 3.00 FIP, and his signature sinker-changeup combination has been responsible for a 59.9% groundball rate. A comparably humble 23.1% strikeout rate over that span (21.4% last year) notwithstanding, the 27-year-old worm-killing workhorse is one of the best pitchers in the game.

Webb sat down to talk pitching at San Francisco’s spring training facility earlier this month. He’ll be on the mound later today when the Giants open the regular season in San Diego.

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David Laurila: How have you evolved as a pitcher since coming to pro ball?

Logan Webb: “I’ve changed probably four different times. I was a sinker guy when I first started. Then I had Tommy John, and when I came back, so did the velo — it was back to the reason why I was drafted.”

Laurila: You were drafted [by the Giants in 2014] because you threw hard?

Webb: “It was part of the reason, for sure. I was anywhere from 93 to touching 96 — that was out of high school — but after I got to pro ball, my elbow wasn’t working the right way. I wasn’t throwing that [velocity], so I had to throw some sinkers. Honestly, that taught me how to pitch.

“Like I said, I came back from TJ and was throwing a little bit harder. They actually moved me up. They kept telling me they wanted me to throw like Tyler Glasnow, Walker Buehler, and a bunch of these guys. So I moved [my arm slot] up, and I couldn’t do it. When I got called up [in 2019], I was still maybe over the top a little bit too much.

“Then we hired [director of pitching] Brian Bannister. He called me and said, ‘We’re going to drop you down.’ This was on December 26 or 27, going into 2020. They were going to have me throw like Chris Sale and Corey Kluber. I was a little shocked at that.”

Laurila: I assume you asked why?

Webb: “I did ask why. They thought that was my natural arm slot, and with the way my hand comes through it would be a good thing to move down. So I did that. It was a big learning curve. It took me about a year to really figure it out. After that, it’s just been kind of refining it, keep trying to get better and better at it each year.”

Laurila: Can you elaborate on why it’s a good arm slot for you?

Webb: “The way my hand comes through… I’m a heavy supination pitcher. When I drop down and throw that supinated pitch, it creates the seam shift for everything — the two-seam and the changeup. I didn’t know about any of this until I got with [Bannister] in spring training. He kind of showed me how it worked. Like I said, it took me a long time to figure it out, but I’m happy I did that.”

Laurila: What is the movement profile of your sinker?

Webb: “It’s usually around 15 [inches] horizontal and anywhere from four vertical to negative-two vertical. That’s arm side.”

Laurila: Are you ever chasing more movement?

Webb: “I’ll maybe chase movement a little bit in bullpens, but once I’m in the game I don’t try to chase anything. I’m just trying to compete, throwing as many strikes as I can.”

Laurila: Pitchers used to routinely tell me that they’re trying to induce weak contact, and that’s evolved to where it’s common for them to say they’re trying to miss bats. What about you?

Webb: “For me, it’s more that I just want them to hit it on the ground. I wouldn’t say that I get the weakest contact — nor a lot of swing-and-miss — but if it’s on the ground, I’m giving myself a chance. I have a defense behind me, so I pride myself on getting ground balls, regardless of how hard they’re hit. Throwing a lot of pitches near the bottom of the zone helps me do that.”

Laurila: A lot of those pitches aren’t sinkers. How often do like to throw your changeup? [Webb threw his changeup a career-high 41.6% of the time last season.]

Webb: “Usually, I like to be around 30%, but there are games where I’ll be 50% changeups, or even 60%. Some days it feels good and the catcher wants it, so I kind of go with it.”

Laurila: How different are your sinker and changeup? I believe the velocity difference isn’t all that great. [Webb’s sinker averaged 92.3 mph last year, his changeup 87.4 mph.]

Webb: “I want my sinker to go more horizontal, and I don’t want my changeups to be straight down. If I can keep my changeup 10 horizontal or below, but have the depth there, that’s a good changeup. It’s not a good pitch if the movement is too close to my two-seam, because yes, I don’t have enough of a speed differential. If you look at the plot map, and my two-seam is over here, I want my changeup over there, more towards the middle plot. If they’re all kind of clustered, that’s when I get in trouble.”

Laurila: Wanting the horizontal, it sounds like your fastball is more of a two-seamer than a classic sinker…

Webb: “Yes and no. It’s more about the action of the pitch. I’ll throw 20-inch two-seams, but I’ll also throw a 12-inch two-seam. I have to catch the seam. The seam-shift wake… if I catch it the right way, it doesn’t matter what the horizontal is. It’s the late movement. It’s going to look to the hitter like it moves more than the other one.”

Laurila: Have hitters told you that you’re deceptive?

Webb: “Not necessarily deceptive. They say that it just gets on them a little bit. I’m up there extension-wise [91st percentile last year], so my 92 might look like 94 instead of the 92 it actually is.”

Laurila: We should touch on your slider. What can you tell me about it?

Webb: “When I first came up, it was probably my best pitch. In 2021, it was my best pitch. I’ve kind of been chasing it ever since then. I think the more I’ve thrown my changeup and my two-seam, that kind of changed my arm action and the way the ball comes out of my hand. It was sharper and more down, and the last two years it’s been more kind of spinning sideways. I’m trying to find that sweet spot again. I want it to move, obviously. I’d call it a sweeper; it really is a sweeper. I want it to move that way, but I also want it to stay under the zero.”

Laurila: How much horizontal are you getting?

Webb: “It’s probably around 10 to 12. Sometimes I’ll get 16 or 17, but my sweet spot is 10 to 12, or 13.”

Laurila: Have you ever tinkered with a gyro?

Webb: “I have, and for some reason it doesn’t work. I’ve tried it for three years. I’ve tried to throw a cutter and I’ve tried to throw gyro. They just aren’t very good.”

Laurila: Any final thoughts?

Webb: “Maybe I could be throwing a couple more four-seams. I threw more four-seams in 2021, and looking back at the past three years, that’s probably the best I’ve felt out of ’21, ’22, and ’23. I think that throwing more four-seams at the top helped open up the bottom a little bit more. That’s obviously where I get most of my outs, down at the bottom of the zone.”