Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Torres’ tough debut
Posted by Lucas ApostolerisThe Rays showcased another one of their top young players on Monday, as they called up left-handed pitcher Alexander Torres for their game against the Yankees. Torres was ranked by Baseball America as the Rays' sixth-best prospect in a list headlined by fellow hurlers Jeremy Hellickson and Matt Moore.
After Alex Cobb, a rookie in his sixth career game, started the game effectively, Joe Maddon called on Torres to make his major league debut in the ninth inning of a 4-4 tie. He was wild, throwing 18 of his 40 pitches for balls—not including an intentional pass to Nick Swisher. In his inning of work, he allowed a hit and three walks (two unintentional); he walked in the go-ahead run on a 3-2 count against Russell Martin. Nerves certainly could have been a factor, but Torres has had control issues in the minor leagues as well (nearly five walks per nine innings in his Triple-A Durham stint this year).
Moving onto the pitch data from Torres's debut: he showcased a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s changeup, and a big curve in the high 70s. This report from Adam Sobsey says that his fastball usually sits 91-93; Torres' velocity was up from there today, presumably due to the fact that he had one, high-pressure inning to work with. The charts below show the horizontal/vertical spin deflection (in inches) and horizontal spin deflection/velocity (inches/mph) for Torres' pitches*.
*Tropicana Field typically has some funky calibration issues, so I am applying some offsets that Mike Fast kindly provided to me in order to give a somewhat more accurate look at the data.
27 fastballs (presumably all four-seamers, though one looks like it might be a sinker), 11 changeups, and two curves from Torres yesterday. The table shows his results with each pitch.
| mph | # | vs LHB | vs RHB | Ball | Called | Swinging | Foul | In Play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastball | 94.4 | 27 | 17 | 10 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| Changeup | 85.6 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Curveball | 77.7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 40 | 23 | 17 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 3 |
Three good-looking pitches, and it's intriguing that he was willing to use the changeup against left-handed batters. His control problems will probably give him some trouble in the big leagues, as they did in yesterday's MLB debut.
You can read more of Lucas's work at Beyond the Boxscore and Don't Bring In The Lefty. Also, you can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or on Twitter @DBITLefty.