Posted by Nick Steiner
One of the better reference sites out there is called Texas Leaguers - The Mechanics of Baseball, and is run by Trip Somers. If you haven't been there before, I definitely recommend checking it out. Trip offers mechanical analysis of a lot of pitcher, mainly Rangers, but also has and detailed glossary of a lot of the mechanical terms you sometimes hear, but have no clue what they mean.
One of the coolest features on Texas Leaguers is the online Pitch f/x web tool, which I didn't know existed until Mike Fast brought it up a couple of weeks ago. Unlike Dan Brooks' tool, which only gives you game by game data, Trip's allows you to select the exact time frame that you want the data from for both batters and pitchers, and allows you to view multiple splits. For example, here are some charts about Tim Lincecum's changeup this year. You can see that he consistently locates down and to the first base side of the strike zone. No wonder why it's been one of the best pitches in baseball. You can also view charts for individual gamelogs, found on the sidebar, and some descriptive stats on the pitch.
Nick is a Cardinals fan living in LA. He also writes for Viva El Birdos. He welcomes questions and comments via email
Comments
RZ said...
Did Trip Somers said his tool was ready for the public use? I emailed him a couple weeks ago and he said he had some bugs and server stuff to straighten out before it becomes official.
Posted 10/15 at 05:09 PM
Nick Steiner said...
It looks like it works fine to me. I guess Trip would know better then.
Posted 10/15 at 05:15 PM
RZ said...
Here is what he said:
“I wasn’t ready for it to be public yet, since I’m still working on a bunch of issues including the layout. I’m not even sure what kind of bandwidth/storage the site will require once people really start using it.
It’s still not quite ready for a full-on coming out party, but it’s not far off, either. When it *is* ready for the whole world, I will make the announcement on my blog”
You can still access it. I guess it would be in beta mode or something.
Posted 10/15 at 05:19 PM
Nick Steiner said...
I feel kinda bad that I pimped it so much before it was ready.
Posted 10/15 at 05:21 PM
RZ said...
I wasn’t too sure to link it so I emailed it.
Posted 10/15 at 05:35 PM
Trip Somers said...
I’ve got some free time this weekend, so I should make some pretty good progress on my remaining issues.
Beta mode is alright, but it’s going to be much better… just wait.
Did Trip Somers said his tool was ready for the public use? I emailed him a couple weeks ago and he said he had some bugs and server stuff to straighten out before it becomes official.