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October 04, 2009

What should we call Rivera’s other fastball?

Mariano Rivera is famous for his cut fastball. So famous, in fact, that it's a common misconception that he only throws one pitch. Of course, from PITCHf/x data, as well as some newspaper reports, we know he throws another type of fastball. I've often seen it referred to as a sinker or two-seam fastball, but its spin deflection certainly looks like a classic four-seamer.

In a discussion about Dave Allen's post about Mariano Rivera that took place at the Book blog, I had the occasion to look for images of Rivera's two fastball grips. I thought I'd share them here for yuk-yuks with the other two of you in the world who care about what to properly name Rivera's "other" fastball.

First, here's his cutter grip, with index fingertip and middle fingertip on the seam. As far as I can tell this is close to a typical cutter grip--a four-seam grip with the ball set a little off center in his hand. (There's a better picture here, but I don't have permission to post the image.)

Rivera throws a cut fastball against the White Sox, July 16, 2006. (Icon/SMI)

Now, here's the other fastball, the one I tend to call a four-seamer because of how it moves. It's the one others call a two-seamer, though I'm not sure why. If you look at how many seams he's holding, should we call it a one-seamer?

Mariano Rivera throws his other fastball against the Rangers, August 7, 2008. (Icon/SMI)

Posted by: Mike Fast

September 12, 2009

The extinction of Zito’s hard curve: a brief follow-up

On September 11, I published this article on Barry Zito, where I stated that he dropped a hard curve, while adding a slider to his arsenal.

Many readers commented that what I noticed might just be a change in the MLBAM classification algorithm, rather than in Zito's repertoire.

I'm not surprised, since I had the same concern myself.
What follows won't end the matter and maybe I'll get on this again in a few weeks.

Here are the speed/movement charts of Zito's 2008 hard curve and his (alleged?) 2009 slider.
Click for more...

Posted by: Max Marchi

September 09, 2009

Who has the best stuff?

Baseball Analysts has a thought-provoking article by Jeremy Greenhouse on using PITCHf/x to measure which pitchers have the best stuff. His results are interesting; I'm eager to peruse the full list in the spreadsheet he links at the end of the article as well as wondering if/how his methodology could be improved.
Posted by: Mike Fast

August 08, 2009

What does Junichi Tazawa throw?

Due to the length of the extra-inning affair between the Yankees and Red Sox, we got a preview of Junichi Tazawa's stuff.

Here's his scouting report from SoxProspects.com:

Tazawa makes use of an 88-92 mph fastball that works inward on righties. It flattens out at higher velocities. Presently it's about average, but it has some plus potential. His secondary stuff is very advanced for his age, and he relies on it heavily. He mixes in an excellent low-80s backdoor slider, a nice low-70s curve (his out pitch), and occasionally makes use of an above average forkball (basically a split-fingered change-up).

Tonight (or should I say this morning?) he threw a four-seam fastball and two-seam fastball, both around 91-93 mph. His breaking pitches were an 81-83 mph slider and a 77-78 mph curveball. There was no sign tonight (in two innings) of a change-up, splitter, or forkball.

So it looks like this scouting report from Casey Greer at Bleacher Report might be more accurate or up-to-date than the more oft-quoted report from SoxProspects.

Tazawa features a low-mid-90s fastball, which tails in on right-handed hitters. His curve, which generally sits between 75-78 mph, is an effective offspeed pitch with sharp, late break. His slider, or possibly a shuuto, which he throws the least of all of the pitches breaks mostly down, and sits in the low-mid-80s.

The pitch that A-Rod hit for a home run was a curveball.

Posted by: Mike Fast

Other factors 1, numbers behind numbers 0

Brian Bannister was knocked out of his start Friday night after allowing five runs to the Oakland Athletics in the fourth inning. What happened? Well, it certainly didn't help that Bannister threw only 20 of 36 pitches in that inning for strikes. He walked Tommy Everidge and Adam Kennedy, both of whom came around to score. But aside from that, did Bannister's "numbers behind numbers" fail him?

He allowed seven balls in play in the inning: five ground balls, one line drive, and one fly ball. So in that sense, he got what he wanted--70 percent ground balls. That's good, right? Did they hit the ball too hard on the ground? Did he just get unlucky? Or was he trumped by, as Dayton Moore puts it, the "other factors" of the defense behind him? Let's take a look.

Batted ball #1: a sharp ground ball single scoots between second baseman Alberto Callaspo and first baseman Billy Butler into right field. This one was hit pretty solidly.

Batted ball #2: a bouncing ground ball fielded by first baseman Billy Butler at the edge of the grass, toss to Bannister coming over for the out. Well-executed defense, but a typical ground ball out on the infield.

Batted ball #3: a line drive out straight to center fielder Josh Anderson. The ball was hit right on the nose but Bannister got a little lucky with this one.

Batted ball #4: a three-hop ground ball single past the shortstop side of second base and into center field. Why was Betancourt positioned so far into the hole that he couldn't even come close to this one?



Batted ball #5: a fly ball double off the wall in right field. This was a change-up down but right over the middle of the plate, and Cliff Pennington hit it hard and deep. Blame Bannister for this one.

Batted ball #6: a two-hop ground ball single cut off by second baseman Alberto Callaspo on the shortstop side of second base. Callaspo's throw was unable to beat a speedy Rajai Davis at first. Once again, Betancourt is playing deep in the hole and can't seem to range over to get this one, although it looked like he could have made the play on the ball and the throw to first on Davis if he'd called Callaspo off. On both this ball and the Ellis single it looked like Callaspo was running about twice as fast to the ball as Betancourt.



Batted ball #7: a two-hop ground ball single past shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt in the hole between short and third and into left field.

.

Betancourt can't field balls hit up the middle on the shortstop side of second base, even if the second baseman can reach them. He can't field balls hit into the hole. I must be missing some of those "other factors" like defensive positioning and what not, although I'm not sure what positioning gives you problems with balls up the middle and in the hole.

I don't watch as many games as Dayton Moore's scouts or Willie Bloomquist's memory, though, so you should draw your own conclusions.
Posted by: Mike Fast


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