February 10, 2012
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Friday, September 03, 2010Pitchers nowadays are on speedA certain young Cincinnati pitcher named Aroldis Chapman has generated some buzz over the past week by throwing the fastest pitch ever thrown in the history of the world. Or did he? It turns out that's not an easy question to answer either simply or accurately, even though we have a lot more and better data than they did in the days when Walter Johnson's fastball was measured against, variously, a gravity drop interval recorder in a laboratory and a speeding motorcycle on Aberdeen Proving Grounds. I'll try to explain how one would go about answering that question using pitch tracking data collected over the last few years. Most notably that involves the PITCHf/x camera system installed by Sportvision beginning in the 2006 playoffs and progressively installed throughout major league ballparks during the 2007 season. PITCHf/x systems have been in place in all major league ballparks since the start of the 2008 season, and well over 95% of the pitches thrown since then have been tracked by the system. PITCHf/x data is notable because it is used in Major League Baseball's online Gameday application, and it is available freely on the web for use by analysts. There are other pitch tracking systems using different technology, such as the TrackMan doppler radar system, but the data from these systems has not been made public. Of course, there is also radar gun data, which I don't mean to dismiss. However, I'm not going to cover that in this article since the data has not been made public in any systematic fashion and I am not an expert on the use of radar guns. There are two important things to understand about pitch speed data. The first is that a baseball thrown through air slows down during its travel due to the force of drag. PITCHf/x data tells us that fastballs lose about nine percent of their speed from the pitcher's hand to home plate. This means that where the speed measurement is made on the trajectory of the pitch is very important. Click for more... 120 years ago today: the first 100-HR hitterOn Sept. 3, 1890, a bit of baseball history was made: the 100-homer club, currently 754 members strong, came into existence as the first player to ever crack triple digits knocked one out of the park. I'd love to say it's a famous name everyone's heard of, but that's not the case. It was Harry Stovey. See? You never heard of him, did you? He was a heckuva player. He led the league in homers five times, which ain't bad. In one of those seasons, he tied the all-time single season HR high in the long-defunct American Association with 19. (The current minor league of that name is a different league that emerged later). Stovey was also the all-time career home run king before Roger Connor, who was the all-time HR king before Ruth. Stovey nearly became the only man to lead three leagues in homers. He paced the NL twice and the American Association thrice, and finished two behind Players Leaguer Connor in 1890. Yet despite all that, he's not in Cooperstown. Not only did he peak a half-century before the Hall of Fame's creation, but he did so in the wrong league. Though the American Association was a major league from 1882-91, it was the second of the two major leagues. No one who spent most of his career in that league has been enshrined in Cooperstown. Stovey has to settle for enshrinement in the Hall of Merit. For a modern spin, three active players are sitting on 99 homers: Jack Cust, Garrett Atkins and Jeff Francoeur. If one of them goes deep today, he'll have a rather well timed 100th. Visual Baseball: Yankees vs. Rays SmackdownHere's a version of Rankometer I'm experimenting with, designed to compare 2 teams head to head. Let's compare the Yankee and Rays on hitting (OPS), pitching (FIP), defense (UZR), and base running (Fangraphs Speed Score). HITTING: The Rays are disadvantaged at almost every position, and at their strongest positions (3B and LF) they only have a slight advantage. 
PITCHING: The teams look very similar, with both teams' starting rotations surprisingly average, and their top relievers closing out games in dominant fashion. 
Click for more... And That HappenedPhillies 12, Rockies 11: I went to the Ohio State-Marshall game last night and for what it's worth, each of these teams had more offense than the Thundering Herd. Heck, Chase Utley himself almost drove in as many, um, points as the Herd did. Six RBI including a grand slam in a nine-run seventh inning. Colorado and Philly used 14 pitchers between them. The Rockies had 20 hits and still lost. Just ugly. Tigers 10, Twins 9: Another ugly one, but a wild ugly one. Quoting the AP is probably the most expedient thing here: "six lead changes, five ties, four errors, two blown saves, 25 runners left on base and at least four botched double plays." And it lasted close to five hour too. Indians 6, Mariners 3: It was the Shin-Soo Choo Show: five RBI, courtesy of a bases-clearing double and a two-run homer. The Mariners' bats went to sleep late, with 18 of the final 19 going quietly. That takes some real doin' against Cleveland's staff. Yankees 5, Athletics 0: Hit this one up yesterday. As I said then, Dallas Braden left early with cramps on a hot and steamy day. CC Sabathia doesn't know what the fuss was all about: "I've always enjoyed pitching in hot weather. Keep the sweat going, keep my arm loose." I still wonder if guys who play their home games in 68 degree weather have a harder time adjusting to heat wave conditions than others. They'd have to, right? Mets 4, Braves 2: It's been so long since Tim Hudson lost a game that I think both he and I still had hair when it happened. The Mets figured him out, though, at least to the tune of four runs in eight innings, which was enough given the Braves' quiet bats. Red Sox 6, Orioles 4: A big second inning -- five runs, led by Adrian Beltre's homer -- put the Sox up early. Dice-K gave four of them back in the sixth, but the pen bailed him out. Back home for Boston tonight to face Manny and the White Sox. I'm sure this will not be noted by the Boston media at all these next few days. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||