In Appreciation of the Littell Guy

My confession: I love watching a strike throwing contact generating pitcher old school style pitcher work

We here at DRaysBay love a good analytical breakdown. We can’t get enough of comparing expected stats to actual results, for instance.

And a seam shifted wake discussion? Oh boy, get the fainting couch because I’m getting the vapors.

However, this is not one of those articles. Nope, I wanted to write entirely about gut feeling and aesthetics. I simply love watching Zack Littell pitch. I might go so far to say, I look forward to watching Zack Littell start more than any other Rays starter.

Littell doesn’t have the filthiest stuff, doesn’t miss the most bats, isn’t the flashiest or more likely to get a ton of PitchingNinja highlights. Taj’s elite level Fastball, Civale’s plus-plus curve, or Shane Baz’s just about everything all have better claims to those than the journeyman reliever turned starter.

In an age of truly superhuman ability in pitchers, Littell is a throwback.

He attacks the zone with relentless command, getting batters going in early strike counts and forcing the action every inning. You aren’t going to see a ton of walks or even deep counts, as Littell — since becoming a starter with the Rays last year — has a truly bonkers BB% of 2.5%(!) that would be tied with George Kirby for best in the majors last year had he had enough innings to qualify.

Littell doesn’t just attack the zone to set up a K-pitch and nibble around. He attacks the zone with intent, because the Rays preach the philosophy of getting ahead early and the race to 2-strikes to put batters into bad situations, and if they want to avoid that they better swing earlier.

This gets the action going, with the opposition forced early into contact if the batter attacks, or setting up a K if the batter waits.

A strikeout is the best outcome you can get as a pitcher. However, basically as good is a quick bad contact that gets an easy out for an exceptionally talented Rays defense.

Strikeouts require at least 3 pitches, but a quick dribbler to Yandy at 1st could take as few as one. Littell is constantly forcing action, so the defenders behind him have to be engaged and ready. When you pitch for the Rays, that’s a good thing to rely on.

Quick outs and a ton of strikes has allowed Littell to work deep into his starts, going more than 5 IP in 8 out of his first 12 true starts with the Rays.

During the offseason, Meg Rowley and Ben Lindbergh on the Effectively Wild Podcast discussed the purely negative aesthetics of watching a Blake Snell start.

Snell is an unquestionably great pitcher, two time Cy Young winner, and as Rays fans know he can be truly one of the filthiest pitchers in the league when he’s on. As Rays fans will also know, Snell can be a rough slog to watch as he avoids the heart of the zone, getting Ks with batters chasing but also surrendering a ton of walks (career walk rate of 10.9% and last year in his 2nd Cy Young campaign his BB% rose to a career worst 13.3%).

Dylan Cease is another extremely talented K-machine who has similarly exhausting starts to get through as they walk and nibble and hunt for the Ks and innings drag on as the base runners pile up. The more base runners, the more 3 true outcomes (walk, K, or HR) that the game has, the often slower and more small the game feels. What I mean by that is truly just my own gut feeling, but when it becomes just Pitcher vs Hitter and you don’t really expect there to be a ball in play, it can make for some boring watching.

Now I don’t want to try and claim the modern game is bad, and “in my day” watching baseball was more fun! Because frankly I love baseball, and modern baseball rules! I do not want to see pitchers go back to throwing 92 MPH and hitters slapping opposite field singles and sac bunting runners over. That sounds frankly terrible.

However, to mix into the modern game of superhuman gravity defying pitches and truly the best hitters the league has ever seen, having a bit of old school attack the zone, force the action, and move quickly is refreshing.

Former DRB writer John Ford recently made the comp that Littell reminds him a bit of Mark Buehrle, and I totally see that. Buehrle was never the flashiest pitcher but he was effective at making batters beat him and not the other way around.

Get the ball, pitch so quickly you forget there is even a pitch clock, get Ks, get contact, move on. Even in a bad game, if Littell is gonna get hit, so be it at least it will be quick.

Zack Littell has adopted quite an old school role in such a new school org, but baseball is baseball no matter the era and the strategy. Hitting a baseball is extremely difficult, and the game has been built with a structural advantage to pitchers. So forcing enough hitters to get enough hits to run up the score to beat you is a challenge worth taking. Tip your cap when they do, and be glad when it often doesn’t happen.

I love watching a Zack Littell start. I love that I get to see Jose Siri make awesome catches, Isaac Paredes scoop it at the hot corner, Randy Arozarena cruise over to make a catch and give the fans a show before hitting them with the arms crossed pose, or even making new guys like Amed Rosario work for it.

And frankly I love watching a Zack Littell start because, besides the general aesthetic of watching a pitcher just relentlessly throw strikes, I love that it’s this guy in particular. The story aspect does add to the fun. Zack Littell was a journeyman reliever. He was DFA’d before the Rays picked him up. He was in the bullpen for the Rays until fate forced their hand. And Littell has taken on this new role and has run with it.

In an era of pitching giants, I just love watching the Littell guy work.