February 10, 2010
Order Now Get "The world champ of baseball annuals." The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 features articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright and contains much, much more. Please support THT and use this link to purchase the Annual.  Get the fantasy book that everyone's raving about! Edited by THT Fantasy's Rob McQuown and Michael Street, and featuring our own Matt Hagen on prospects. Shipping now from ACTA! 
Pat Andriola
Rich Barbieri John Barten Brian Borawski Craig Brown Evan Brunell Chuck Brownson Kevin Dame Joshua Fisher David Gassko Jeremy Greenhouse Brandon Isleib Chris Jaffe Max Marchi Bruce Markusen Dan Novick Harry Pavlidis Alex Pedicini Jeff Sackmann Nick Steiner Dave Studeman Steve Treder Bryan Tsao Tuck! Geoff Young John Brattain And here's the full roster.
Or you can search by:
Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets. Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com. Chicago Cubs Tickets Chicago Tickets  All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
Starter or reliever? Joakim Soria (Part 1)by Harry PavlidisApril 21, 2009 Today, I introduce Joakim Soria via PITCHf/x. Next week, I'll look at other converted relievers. The Royals haven't said anything to indicate Soria's days as closer are limited, but the idea isn't new among the Royals faithful. I think the "why doesn't he start?" question is a natural for a four-pitch reliever. By the end of Part 2, we'll have an idea about what the upside may be. For now, Soria's stuff: A brief history of Joakim SoriaSigned by the Dodgers in 2001, while just 17, he ended up having Tommy John surgery just two years later. Soria was released after making just four appearances in 2004 and spent 2005 pitching for Mexico City—mostly in relief. The Padres signed Soria in December of 2005, but lost him one year later in the Rule 5 draft. Two days later, in the Mexican Winter League, Soria tossed a perfect game. That spring, he made the team and was tucked away in the bullpen. Soria made his major league debut on April 4, 2007, and eventually starting closing games. Two seasons and one All-Star Game later, Soria is now under a three-year contract and considered an elite closer. But should he start? Considering his record, and his stuff, it's a reasonable question. PITCHf/x profileSoria, a right hander, throws four pitches: a four-seam fastball (F4), a change-up (CH), a slider (SL) and a curveball (CU). He comes right over the top, maximizing the backspin and "rise" on his 91.8 mph fastball. That's not gaudy velocity, and that's working in short spurts. The beauty of Soria is not the fastball, which he throws consistently for strikes, but his off-speed and breaking stuff. His change-up (84 mph) sinks and tails, his slider really slides (79) with a lot of horizontal movement and his overhand curveball is a big breaker, floating in at just over 69 mph. Click each image for a larger version.  While he has four pitches to go to, he really works each at bat as a three-pitch guy, since he essentially abandons his change-up against righties and his slider against lefties.  His pitching pattern is fairly similar to both batter hands, simply swapping out the change-up and the slider as appropriate.   Look for fastballs, unless he's ahead. Before wrapping up, take one look at where he locates his pitches. Or three looks. Soria tends to work up with heat and down with the rest—which you can see in the flight paths. These graphs depict "slices" and "layers." The extremes are out of the zone, while the middle three slices or layers are within the strike zone. See below for more explanation on how I arrive at and measure the segments. The first look combines all four pitches, while the last two separate the fastball from the others.  Soria clearly keeps away from hitters, especially with the slider and change-up. That makes sense, given how those pitches are used against left- and right-handed hitters.  Looking at the three "other" pitches in isolation, the curveball stands out as the only one that sees all slices and layers with any regularity.  Finally, the isolated fastball locations. You can now spend the next week contemplating Soria's pitching style, checking out the links in the Resources and References, and then meet me back in this spot next week. Up nextNow that we know what he throws, we'll explore some pitchers who abruptly left the bullpen for the rotation, see what it meant to their teams (WAR), and, in some cases, what it meant for their stuff. References and Resources Batting zone slices are defined as follows: The plate is considered to be 24 inches across. Wide and Tight are off the plate, Fat is the middle 10 inches, In and Out comprise seven inches a piece. Batting zone layers are defined as follows: Each hitter has his own strike zone, with the top and bottom set as the average of all PITCHf/x operator values for that hitter. The High and Low layers are out of the zone, and the remaining layers each comprise one third of a hitters vertical strike zone. PITCHf/x data provided by MLBAM. Pitch classifications by the author. Biographical and statistical data on Soria from: Fangraphs and Baseball Reference Harry Pavlidis admits he has a baseball problem. He also writes for Beyond the Boxscore, Out of the Ivy and his own blog, Cubs f/x. Feedback, questions and comments are appreciated - harrypav@gmail.com Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer. Next Article: THT Awards>> <<Previous Article: The Branch Rickey Pirates (Part 6: 1954-1955) | ||||
