Sarah Langs, ESPN Stats & Information 7y

How the Boston Red Sox can make Chris Sale even better

As good as Chris Sale was in 2016, the adjustments he made last season could benefit him more now that he’s with the Boston Red Sox.

Sale’s contact rate of 75 percent in 2016 was the second-highest of his career. He threw more hard pitches, which induced more contact. His fastball usage rate was 60 percent last season, compared to 53 percent from 2012-15.

He spread his increased fastball usage around. Sale threw 66 percent first-pitch fastballs last season compared with 58 percent from 2012 to '15, and 52 percent fastballs with two strikes, compared with 45 percent from 2012 to '15.

Though he induced more contact, pitching to contact works better when a pitcher has solid defense behind him.

The Chicago White Sox ranked 11th in the American League in defensive runs saved (DRS) in 2016. They had minus-four DRS behind Sale specifically.

They didn’t help him in the pitch-framing department, either. The White Sox ranked last in the majors in strikes looking above average, a statistic that measures success in pitch framing.

Sale ranked 72nd of 74 qualified starters last season in the strikes looking above average metric. This is a statistic that  looks at how many strikes a pitcher got versus how many an average pitcher would have gotten, based on the average chance of each pitch being called a strike.

How the Red Sox can help

The Red Sox were second in the AL with 54 defensive runs saved last season. They added reigning AL Gold Glove first baseman Mitch Moreland in the offseason. Moreland had seven DRS at first base in 2016; the White Sox’s Jose Abreu had minus-five.

The Red Sox ranked 18th in strikes looking above average, but how that plays out to Sale’s benefit might depend on who the catcher is. Christian Vazquez was 12th in the majors (among 76 qualifiers) in strikes looking rate above average, but Sandy Leon was 56th.

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