Posts tagged as:

pitch f/x

Pitch f/x is encouraged by Bonderman

09.09.2009 5 comments

Jeremy Bonderman has had a very long road back from the surgery he underwent to correct thoracic compression outlet syndrome. There was hope he’d be back in the rotation this year, but his spring became very extended and he didn’t make his first appearance until June 8th – and he was crushed. It was back [...]

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Faster than fast – the quickest pitches of 2009

06.27.2009 20 comments

On Tuesday night Joel Zumaya threw a ball that the Comerica Park gun, and the Fox Sports gun clocked at 104mph. That is freakishly fast and a little hard to believe, at the very least there was probably some rounding up. A check of MLB.com’s pitch f/x data had the pitch 50 feet from home [...]

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Dontrelle Willis Pitch Location

Dontrelle’s Debut

05.15.2009 4 comments

I don’t know if I’d call Dontrelle’s outing good, but I would call it progress. He can now throw the ball over the plate. He knows it. The coaching staff knows it. The fans know it. Now it is a matter of whether or not he can be an effective big league pitcher.

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Thumbnail image for Justin Verlander’s New Slider

Justin Verlander’s New Slider

05.09.2009 17 comments

Justin Verlander has turned in 3 remarkable outings in a row amassing 31 strike outs as hitters can’t catch up with his heater or their knees buckle with the curve. But very quietly Verlander has added a slider to his repertoire.

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What’s up with Verlander in the stretch?

04.26.2009 19 comments

Justin Verlander has gotten off to a rough start in 2009. People are starting to question his “ace-hood” and with an ERA of 9.00 after 4 starts it is probably justified. What makes his start so perplexing is that his “stuff” appears to be back. His fastball velocity is over 95mph and he’s fanning 10.7 batters per 9 innings. The numbers that really need a deeper examination though are those when runners are on base. Verlander is stranding only 39.6% of runners (a normal rate is 65-75%) and hitters post a 457 OBP with men on and only 296 with the bases empty. What’s up with that?

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Game 2009.007: Rangers at Tigers

04.12.2009 70 comments

PREGAME: The Tigers look for a series sweep of the Texas Rangers this Easter Sunday. The Rangers mashed Cleveland pitching but haven’t been able to muster much offense against the Tigers starters. Today it will be Edwin Jackson making his second start of the season. His first effort was wasted by the bullpen as [...]

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Not pounding the zone

01.06.2009 1 comment

Way back in 2008 I started to run a series using pitch f/x data to look at strike throwing tendencies. Sadly this is the slowest moving “series” of posts ever. Nonetheless, it’s time for part 3 where we look at how teams do when they get strikes outside of the zone. For this exercise I’m [...]

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Pounding the zone by count

11.16.2008 3 comments

In part 1 of the series I dumped some big tables in here that looked at the rate at which teams threw a)strikes and b)the ball in the strike zone. Today we’ll continue along the same path, but we’ll start to differentiate based on count.
Pitches In the Strike Zone by Count
In 2008 teams pitchers [...]

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Strike Throwing – Part 1 – Lots of Tables

10.27.2008 12 comments

The Tigers walked a lot of people last year. Along the way they threw a lot of pitches, and many seemed to be ill advised. The performance cost Chuck Hernandez his job, jettisoned in favor of an instructor whose students have gone on to gain some renown as strike throwing machines. Armed with [...]

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Evidence of bizarre strike zone disappears

05.17.2008 28 comments

In last night’s Detroit-Arizona game there were several moments where I was completely befuddled by CB Bucknor’s strike zone. But I was going to just consider my bias as a frustrated fan and let it go. Then I saw Tom Gage’s game story and a ball-strike call was the lead for his story. [...]

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Verlander arm angle follow-up

04.25.2008 5 comments

Prior to Justin Verlander’s last start we discussed his dip in velocity and a change in arm angle is he was looking to make. Verlander had some improved results in his Tuesday night start against the Rangers. Looking at his pitch f/x data he averaged 93.9mph with his fastball and peaked around [...]

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Verlander and his arm angle

04.21.2008 20 comments

As has been widely documented at this point, Justin Verlander’s velocity is down significantly. Either it is a systematic change in measurement mechanisms, or it is a real dip. Given the remarkable disparity and the fact it doesn’t seem to be effecting other pitchers the same way, I’m inclined to believe it is [...]

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