His fastball — 96-98 with plenty of spin, and a near perfect backspinning axis that creates elite vertical movement — generated a nearly 27% swinging strike rate in the minors last year.It can be difficult to analyze the weapons of minor league pitchers because we don’t have the same assortment of publicly available data we have on big leaguers. This can be frustrating when attempting to explain the cause of someone’s performance. Put it all together, and Karinchak struck out 59.2% of batters to face him in the minors last season. Unfortunately for AL Central hitters who planned on doing some cool stuff in the late innings of games against Cleveland over the next few years, I regret to inform you that yes, his curve absolutely rules.It’s a bit of an odd pitch. After a solid spring training that saw him strike out nine and walk five with two wild pitches in 5 1/3 innings, Karinchak and his curveball will be looking to make an impression on manager Terry Francona early as soon as baseball returns.Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our It is uncommon for a player who has only pitched in relief to land within sniffing distance of a preseason top-100 prospect list. It is uncommon for a player who has only pitched in relief to land within sniffing distance of a preseason top-100 prospect list. Then he was promoted to Triple-A, where he struck out 42 of 76. As Longenhagen alluded to, Karinchak is able to get top-tier vertical movement on his four-seamer, similar to Poche. James Stephen Karinchak (born September 22, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB).. Career. James Karinchak Is Living Up To His Hype It is uncommon for a player who has only pitched in relief to land within sniffing distance of a preseason top-100 prospect list. In his 2020 rankings , Eric Longenhagen identified a total of 43 pitchers, 42 of which have spent most if not all of their minor league careers as starters. Baseball America picked the pitch as the best curveball among Cleveland farmhands last year in its “Best Tools” survey of each franchise.Later in that first outing against the Twins, Karinchak buckled All-Star Jorge Polanco’s knees with this 3-2 curve after Polanco had already collected three hits in the game.James Karinchak strikes out Jorge Polanco with a curveball.In his brief September stint with the club, half of Karinchak’s eight strikeouts came on curveballs. If his first glimpse at the majors is any indication, we won’t stop talking about him anytime soon. Von. Last September, he hit as high as 97.9 mph on the radar gun. That was more than 11 points ahead of Karinchak has made 11 appearances in 2020, and if anything, he’s only exceeded the potential he showed during his minor league career. When Jeff Sullivan Now that Karinchak is in the majors, we can dig into his data the same way. According to Baseball Savant, only That near-27% swinging strike rate against the fastball Longenhagen mentioned him having in the minors? Four were taken for strikes and three more produced swing-and-miss strikes. He moved right on to Double-A, where he struck out 24 of 36 hitters. According to Statcast, Karinchak currently ranks in the 100th percentile in xBA, xSLG, and xwOBA, and the 99th percentile in xERA. In 13.2 innings, he’s struck out 26 batters while walking just six, allowing one run on four hits. Karinchak has thrown his fastball 122 times this year, with an average velocity of 95.6 mph. Karinchak has allowed just a .132 wOBA in plate appearances ending with the four-seamers, easily making it one of the best-performing fastballs in the majors.Karinchak could probably lean hard on that fastball and be just fine. Karinchak was the ace of Bryant's 47-12 club in 2016, going 12-3 with a 2.00 ERA while ranking 25th in the country with 112 strikeouts in 94.2 innings. He posted a 22.9 strikeouts per nine innings average, the best in the minors during the regular season. If we set a minimum inning requirement to 10 innings — look, sample sizes for relievers are going to be a crapshoot for most of the year, just bear with me — Karinchak’s 52% strikeout rate leads all pitchers, as does his 0.68 FIP.The admittedly small number of innings he’s thrown in the big leagues have served to reinforce Karinchak’s reputation as a next-level strikeout arm, so let’s talk about why the former ninth-round pick is able to do this.