Monday, January 23, 2012
Putnam f/x
Posted by Lucas ApostolerisFor the second time this offseason, Kevin Slowey has been traded. This time, he’s going from the Rockies to the Indians. The return for Colorado is 24-year-old reliever Zach Putnam, who had a cup of coffee with the Indians in September. You know what that means? It means that we have 114 pitches worth of PITCHf/x for Putnam’s debut. Before we get into that, though, let’s get a few things out of the way:
- Drafted by the Indians in the fifth round of the 2008 draft out of the University of Michigan
- Has started 15 of his 122 minor league games, but 2011 was his first year exclusively in the bullpen
- About 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings and 2.5 walks per nine innings over his minor league career
For his stint with the Indians (7.1 innings, 10 hits, five runs, no walks, two hit batsmen, nine strikeouts), I could identify three clear pitches from Putnam. About half the time against righties and two-thirds of the time against lefties, Putnam relied on a 91 mph fastball. They appear to be predominately four-seamers, though there are likely some two-seamers or maybe even cutters in there as well. A picture of his four-seam grip can be seen here.
His out-pitch against both lefties (33 percent) and righties (30 percent) was a splitter that looks early on to be a very good offering. On average, it was about six mph off of his fastball with nine extra inches of downward action; it got a swing-and-miss on 48 percent of swings against it. You can see his splitter grip here.
Putnam also threw a handful of low-80s sliders that didn’t have a whole lot of depth and were left up (only three of Putnam’s 17 sliders were below the bottom of the strike zone*, while half of his 36 splitters were). This looks like his slider grip.
*In this context, I am using a fixed vertical strike zone of 1.75 feet above ground to 3.4 feet above ground.
Pitch results are in the table below.
# LHB RHB Ball Called Whiff Foul In Play Fastball 61 29 32 21 10 3 14 13 Splitter 36 15 21 8 3 12 7 6 Slider 17 1 16 7 5 1 0 4
Putnam will be on the Rockies' 40-man roster, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a serious look for a bullpen spot out of spring training. His splitter is particularly intriguing.
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.