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October 13, 2009

PITCHf/x data from Arizona Fall League

Per MLBAM's Cory Schwartz, the Arizona Fall League has PITCHf/x camera systems operational at the Surprise and Peoria parks. PITCHf/x data will be available for all your favorite AFL participants, including Phillippe Aumont, Ian Kennedy, and, perhaps, super-uber-star prospect Stephen Strasburg and everyone's favorite Phillies minor league blogger Michael Schwimer, if the stars align so that either pitches at Surprise or Peoria.

Raw XML-format PITCHf/x data can be found here.

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

August 03, 2009

Midseason TotalZone Minors

In February, Sean ("Chone") Smith applied his TotalZone defensive metric to the last few years of minor league data. The resulting numbers confirmed some opinions, questioned some conventional wisdom, and helped us better understand the relationship between fielding at various levels of professional baseball.

Sean or I will probably go further in depth when the 2009 season is in the books, but while we wait, we've run TZ for the full-season minors through games of July 31. Read on for some of the highlights.
Click for more...

Posted by: Jeff Sackmann

June 05, 2008

THT draft primer

For loyal THT readers, you may remember the "Breaking Down the 2007 Draft" articles written by Carlos Gomez close to a year ago. In the upcoming weeks, I plan on replicating this series for the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft. Of course, there will be a few slight differences.
Click for more...

Posted by: Alex Eisenberg

June 25, 2004

Top 5 revisited

It's been almost a month since I first talked about my top 5 little-known minor leaguers. Here's an update on their current (minor-league) stats:

              AVG  OBP  SLG
H Stanley    .239 .330 .351
R Castro     .233 .321 .362
J Knott      .324 .393 .632
J Willingham .268 .432 .562
B Jacobsen   .329 .413 .691

Castro is on the Oakland bench at the moment, and Knott was riding the pine in San Diego until he was mercifully sent back to Triple-A to play everyday. I'm convinced that Knott, Willingham, and Jacobsen could be productive regulars in the majors right now. As for Stanley and Castro, I'm holding out hope that their past few years are more reliable than their current disappointing first-halves.

Jacobsen has gotten better each month this year, and he's having the mother of all Junes: he's batting .383 this month, with 10 homers and 25 RBI in 83 at-bats.
Posted by: Matthew Namee


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