Over 60% of Burns' pitches this season have been either high pitches -- located at the top edge of the strike zone or higher -- or low pitches -- located at the bottom edge of the strike zone or lower. He's one of only two starting pitchers to go either high or low so often.
SP who throw the highest % of pitches either high or low
Of 146 starters with at least 500 total pitches
1. Grant Holmes (Braves): 61.4%
2. Chase Burns (Reds): 61.2%
3. Kyle Bradish (Orioles): 58.8%
4. Spencer Strider (Braves): 58.6%
5. (tie) Zac Gallen (D-backs): 58.3%
5. (tie) Matthew Liberatore (Cardinals): 58.3%
5. (tie) Landen Roupp (Giants): 58.3%
Burns sharing the top five with Strider is fitting -- Strider broke out with the Braves as the same type of two-pitch power pitcher that Burns is now, with his own explosive rising fastball/wipeout slider combo. Gallen is another famously north-south pitcher, but sub in knuckle-curves as his main breaking ball. And if you go just outside the top five, you also find Trey Yesavage, the Blue Jays’ phenom who's burst onto the scene with the same up-and-down approach, just with a splitter as his best secondary.
Burns fits right in with these guys. Because his fastball is 1) so fast and 2) gets so much rising movement (that's in our story on him from April), he can let it rip up high. Those elevated fastballs set up his nasty slider down low, which is how Burns gets most of his strikeouts.
Hitters see all those upper-90s fastballs at their eyes and they have to be ready to hit the high heat. Then, they can't lay off the slider that breaks down and out of the zone.
