San Francisco Giants Emerging Pitcher Needs To Keep Leaning Into Breaking Ball Usage

There have been a lot of players contributing to the San Francisco Giants that have helped the team get off to stellar start.

At 15-9, they are doing everything they can to keep pace with the San Diego Padres, who are 17-7, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are 16-8, in the National League West. Right behind them are the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are 14-9.

One of the players who has helped in the early going is starting pitcher Landen Roupp.

After shockingly making the Opening Day roster as a relief pitcher in 2024, he surprised everyone again in spring training this year by winning the last open spot in the starting rotation.

Roupp beat out Hayden Birdsong, who has been lights out as a multi-inning reliever with the Major League team, Keaton Winn and former top prospect Kyle Harrison, who was the odds-on favorite entering camp.

After registering a 6.06 ERA in his first 11 Major League appearances, Roupp returned with a vengeance in the second half of the season.

From Aug. 9 through the end of the campaign, he made 12 appearances and didn’t allow a run in 10 of them. As a reliever, he pitched 15.1 shutout innings. As a starter, he gave up eight runs in 18.2 innings.

A strong end to the campaign was carried over into spring training, where he performed well enough to beat out his teammates for the final spot in the rotation behind Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Justin Verlander and Jordan Hicks.

Through his first 22 innings of the season, Roupp has a 4.09 ERA with 29 strikeouts. But, advanced stats show that he is performing better than those numbers would suggest with a 3.25 FIP and expected ERA of 2.92.

One of the weapons that he has been using to find success in the early going is his curveball, which is amongst the most devastating pitches in the MLB right now.

As shared by Michael Salfino of The Athletic (subscription required), Roupp is throwing the pitch 40.4% of the time and has registered an obscene 56.8% whiff rate.

Working off his curveball is a sinker, which isn’t grading out nearly as well. He needs to contine throwing something with some velocity to keep hitters off balance, but it wouldn’t hurt to work in his changeup with more frequency.

His whiff rate with the off-speed pitch is an impressive 40% as well.

His 11.9 K/9 is the most amongst starting pitchers on the Giants. The only pitcher who has a higher one is reliever Randy Rodriguez with a 12.1.

Roupp’s strikeout rate is an elite 31.2% and could jump up if he adjusts his pitch usage even slightly.

Expect that ERA of 4.09 to continue coming down, especially with how much success he is having limiting damaging contact. He has an average exit velocity of only 86.1 mph against him and a hard-hit rate of 30.4%, both well below the MLB average.