Ben Joyce’s highlight reel strikeouts are electric, but this key skill is really carrying him

105.5mph strikeouts are cool, but do you know what REALLY rules? Ground balls.

Ben Joyce is no stranger to viral moments, as every baseball fan loves a fireballer. Joyce became a household name during his time at Tennessee because of his legendary radar readings. His career's zenith was his record-setting, 106mph punch-out against Tommy Edman, but that sensational moment does not define Joyce as a highly effective back-end reliever.

Editor's note: every stat below is filtered by pitchers who have thrown a minimum of 30 innings this season.

Not every pitcher who can throw 100+mph is the same. Some can strike out a ton of guys, but others are not as effective at missing barrels. The prime example of this is Mason Miller vs. Ben Joyce, two intra-division closers who pump gas. According to FanGraphs, Ben Joyce and Mason Miller throw the hardest fastballs in the league. Joyce averages 102.4mph and Miller averages 101.1mph. Mason Miller's 14.59 K/9 ranks 1st in baseball. Ben Joyce's 8.57 K/9 ranks...217th.

Some flamethrowers induce a lot of negative launch angles and/or soft contact, but not a ton of called strikes and whiffs (CSW). Ben Joyce is in the negative launch angle camp (he's not an upper echelon soft contact guy). Mason Miller leads the league in CSW%, and Joyce ranks 137th. Joyce is a glorified sinker-baller in the way he releases the ball from a low release point, pitches to contact, and pounds the bottom of the zone.

He predominantly throws a 4-seam fastball, but it functions more like a 2-seamer. His 4-seamer relies more on its horizontal movement than ride, which is atypical in today's game (Mason Miller is a high ride 4-seamer). Joyce's 4-seamer does not have enough vertical drop to classify as a true sinker, but it plays like one.

Ben Joyce's 58.9% ground ball percentage ranks 16th in the league (Jose Soriano's 59.7% ground ball percentage ranks 12th, and he's thrown more innings than anybody ahead of him). His 100+mph fastball, mid-90s splinker, and manipulated sliders keep batters guessing. Not enough so to generate an elite CSW%, but enough to get them to beat the ball into the ground at a high clip. Similarly, his 0.26 HR/9 is tied for 10th in baseball. Hitters simply cannot lift his pitches into the air.

Joyce's scoreless streak is up to 8 innings in a row. His 84.5% left on base percentage ranks 18th in the league, which is an essential skill as a reliever. He's thriving in his new role as the Angels' closer, and his appearances are now must-watch television. He will pitch many more clean innings in the future, but do not expect him to strike out the side every time you tune in.