PBR Introduces Rise Score

February 17, 2022
Zach Day / Joe Dattoli
Senior Advisor / West Coast Operations Director

RISE QUANTIFIED

Until now, the word 'rise' has been used to describe a fastball that vertically breaks up with velocity through the strike zone. You may say fastballs with extreme rise have a high elite backspin.

Rising fastballs visually carry through the strike zone generating higher fly ball percentages when thrown up in the strike zone. A higher rise score has the potential to generate more whiffs, especially when paired with complimentary fastball movement characteristics that create a movement gap between the fastball and breaking ball. PBR’s goal was to be able to objectively quantify fastballs with rise characteristics across levels.

What is a Rise?

Rise is defined as a fastball that rises vertically with velocity through the strike zone.

Rise Score

Using advanced pitch data metrics, PBR’s analytics department has developed a rise score to easily compare fastballs across multiple levels.

Rise+ Stats

The Rise+ stat takes and normalizes our Rise score across an entire level. Rise+ is calculated by dividing a Pitcher’s rise by the mean rise of the level of play and multiplying by 100. In other words, the mean Hop is set to 100 and 1 unit above or below that is equal to being 1% above or below that mean for the level of play.

MLB RISE+ LEADERS 2021

RANK	PITCHER	YEAR	RISE+
1	Tyler Wells	2021	150
2	Josh Sborz	2021	148
3	Demarcus Evans	2021	147
4	Aroldis Chapman	2021	145
5	Nick Pivetta	2021	143
6	Liam Hendricks	2021	142
7	Dylan Cease	2021	141
8	J.P. Feyereisen	2021	141
9	Peter Fairbanks	2021	140
10	Génesis Cabrera	2021	140
11	Chad Green	2021	139
12	Keone Kela	2021	138
13	Michael Kopech	2021	138
14	Jordan Romano	2021	136
15	Josh Staumont	2021	136
16	Jharel Cotton	2021	134
17	Trevor Bauer	2021	133
18	Nate Pearson	2021	133
19	Blake Snell	2021	132
20	Nick Mears	2021	131

MLB RISE+ LEADERS 2015-2021

RANK	PITCHER	YEAR	HAMMER+
1	Aroldis Chapman	2016	174
2	James Karinchak	2020	161
3	Walker Buehler	2020	160
4	Nick Hagadone	2015	155
5	Justin Wilson	2015	154
6	Clayton Kershaw	2016	154
7	Cam Bedrosian	2016	150
8	Justin Verlander	2019	150
9	Nick Anderson	2019	150
10	Steve Geltz	2016	150
11	Tyler Wells	2021	150
12	Liam Hendriks	2020	149
13	Aroldis Chapman	2015	149
14	Aroldis Chapman	2019	148
15	Josh Sborz	2021	148
16	Justin Verlander	2018	148
17	Danny Duffy	2015	148
18	Erik Johnson	2015	148
19	Steve Geltz	2015	148
20	Demarcus Evans	2021	147

SUMMARY

We now have a simple way to objectively compare fastballs with rise characteristics between levels and over time with the Rise+ stat. The effectiveness of a fastball is very dependent on outside factors including location and pitch repertoire. In general, fastballs with higher Rise+ are more difficult to hit.

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