SB Nation - Charlie Zink

Minor League Update -- 11/09/09

Ben Buchanan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:34:06 -0000

Remember Javier Lopez? Turns out he's a free agent.

The Over The Monster top prospects list should start being compiled fairly soon. We'll be using reader voting again, with a slightly different format which should make it so that "write ins" aren't necessary.

Arizona Fall League

Luis Exposito: 3-8, 2B -- .286/.324/.429

-Expo's numbers just keep on improving since the bad start.

Jose Iglesias: 2-8, HR, K -- .222/.286/.378

-Again some pop out of Iglesias. His bat is clearly a work in progress, and he needs to work on plate patience BIG TIME (4 out of 5 at bats last game were 1-pitch at bats. The other was a strikeout. Though he did record RBIs on 3 of 5, so it's worth considering that it might have been somewhat situational.)

Ryan Kalish: 4-9, 2B, 2 BB, K -- .292/.368/.333

-After putting on a surprising power performance during the regular season, it's all but disappeared for Kalish in the fall. I wouldn't worry too much about it, though. It could be fatigue, it could be what he's working on, but he's shown he can smack 20+ out. His emergence as a patient hitter who's gonna get on base a lot is much more important.

Casey Kelly: 0-4, BB, K

-Whoo!

Randor Bierd: 3 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 4 K – 5.60 ERA, 12:9 K:BB, 1.19 WHIP

-A poor fall can't be a good sign for Bierd's flickering career.

Richie Lentz: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – 0.77 ERA, 13:2 K:BB, .77 WHIP

-Lentz is putting on quite the show after getting pounded in Portland this year. A dramatic improvement in control (33 BB in 36 IP to 2 in 12) can't hurt.

Chris Province: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K – 3.12 ERA, 8:4 K:BB, 1.04 WHIP

Dustin Richardson: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – 5.19 ERA, 13:7 K:BB, 1.85 WHIP

-Includes 1 IP, 2 H, 1 K in the Rising Stars game. That inning will not be included in season numbers.

Columbian Winter League

Reynaldo Rodriguez: .261/.352/.391 in 46 ABs

Dominican Winter League

Mark Wagner: 1-8, K – .296/.390/.500

-Can't dominate every week.

Jose Capellan: 7.1 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 0 K – 3.71 ERA, 4:10 K:BB, 1.53 WHIP

-The ERA isn't horrible. But the peripherals...Oh the peripherals.

Sydney Winter League

The brothers Moanaroa and Mitch Dening have been hanging out in Aussie.

Mitch Dening: .500/.600/1.500 in 4 ABs

Boss Moanaroa: .357/.500/.429 in 14 ABs

-Still want to see the power.

Moko Moanaroa: .250/.357/.250

Venezuelan Winter League

Yeiper Castillo: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K – 1.80 ERA, 4:4 K:BB, 1.40 WHIP

Felix Doubront: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K – 2.84 ERA, 2:0 K:BB, .95 WHIP

Leandro Marin: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K – 3.38 ERA, 4:0 K:BB, 1.13 WHIP

List of Red Sox Minor League Free Agents

Edit: I have been correctly called out by poster Chebornek for not crediting SoxProspects.com for having gotten my information for this list from them. It was an oversight, and certainly in no way malicious. SoxProspects.com is a fantastic site and I encourage any and all of Over the Monster's readers to visit it--they're honestly a better resource than I am.

Technically, some of these names aren't minor leaguers, but it's worth noting them separate from the obvious big name guys.

Zach Borowiak

Robert Coello

Nick Green

Derrick Loop

Dave McKae

Iggy Suarez

Good luck to all the free agents in finding somewhere to play—whether back with Boston or elsewhere.

(Javier Lopez is a pretty surprising name, if you ask me.)

Farmers Only: Dayton needs to learn how to play nice and share that offense

BK — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:00:16 -0000

Louisville were one of two Reds minor league clubs to get shut out, as they lost to Pawtucket 2-0. Charlie Zink of the PawSox was the second pitcher to throw a one-hitter against the Bats in the series, as Michael Griffin secured the only Bats hit in the 5th. Matt Maloney had another good start, as he went 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 7 hits and struck out 7. Ben Jukich and Josh Roenicke both pitched perfect innings in relief, but it didn't matter with the offensive struggles. Up next: Homer Bailey takes on Pawtucket at 7:05.

Rojas

Carolina also got shut out by Montgomery, 3-0. Zach Stewart pitched 4 innings of scoreless ball, but he was pulled before the 5th. Let's hope it's not an injury, but that's what it's looking like at the moment. Kyle Aselton continued to bring the suck, by giving up 3 runs in 1 1/3 for the loss. It's a shame, because Sean Watson and Ruben Medina were perfect in their relief outings of 2 2/3 and 1 inning respectively. Offensively, a Chris Heisey triple and Todd Frazier double were the only two hits on the night for the Mudcats. Up next: Travis Wood takes on Montgomery at 7:15.
Philippe-Alexandre Valiquette blew his first save of the season, as Sarasota blew a one run lead in the 9th to lose 3-2 to Dunedin. Once again, Jeremy Horst gets denied a win despite a good outing. Horst went 7 innings and gave up 1 run, while striking out 6 hitters. Tony Brown hit a 2-run home run in his first start at DH for the S-Reds, but other than that, not much offense was happening. Up next: Rafael Gonzalez takes the hill against Dunedin at 7.

Mendez

Apparently, Dayton was hoarding all of the offense for the night, as they routed Wisconsin 14-4. Miguel Rojas led the way, going 3-for-5 with his 2nd home run of the season, and 3 RBI total, and Carlos Mendez had 4 hits and 3 RBI too. Andrew Means was 2-for-5 in the 3rd spot in the lineup, and leadoff hitter David Sappelt had two doubles to add to the cause. Featured Farmhand Cody Puckett also drove in two runs. Yen-Wen Kuo went 2-for-4 to get his first hits of the season. Oh yeah, and J.C. Sulbaran pitched another nice game, going 6 innings of 2 run, 7 strikeout ball, all without walking any hitters. Up next: Matt Fairel takes on Wisconsin at 7.
Roster Moves: Homer Bailey is now on the Louisville roster, which will come in handy as he's pitching tonight. James Avery is on the DL in Carolina with an injury that hasn't been disclosed yet (or, at least I haven't been able to find it).

2008 Mets Post-Mortem: Pitchers And Pitches

Eric Simon — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:00:05 -0000

I love stats. I acknowledge their flaws, and I certainly don't believe they tell you everything there is to know about baseball (does anyone actually?), but they really are just a lot of fun to pore over. Thanks to countless intrepid folks who have contributed the ways and means for distributing and disseminating baseball statistics, we have the tools available to learn far more about the game and its players than we ever have before.

One ridiculously useful site for baseball statistics (among other things) is FanGraphs, which is where all of the stats for this article (as well as the WPA graphs in my daily recaps) were extracted from. I wanted to take some time to look at the Mets' pitchers, their pitch velocities and pitch selection from 2008, so let's do just that.

Fastballs

The fastball is almost every pitcher's bread-and-butter. Better than 85% of pitchers threw fastballs at least half the time. Almost 11% threw their heater three-quarters of the time or more. Three guys threw 90% fastballs, though only one -- Tampa Bay's Grant Balfour (91.3%) did so over a significant number of innings. Eddie Kunz threw a higher percentage of fastballs than anyone else in baseball (92.3%), but he only threw a total of 55 pitches.

So folks throw a lot of fastballs. But how fast do they throw 'em? Here are the average fastball speeds for Mets pitchers this season.

Player	FBavg
Brian Stokes	95.0
Billy Wagner	94.5
Robert Parnell	94
Aaron Heilman	93.3
Edward Kunz	92.9
Mike Pelfrey	92.7
Jorge Sosa	92.2
John Maine	92.1
Johan Santana	91.2
Oliver Perez	91.2
Brandon Knight	91
Carlos Muniz	90.2
Duaner Sanchez	89.8
Joe Smith	89.4
Jonathon Niese	89.4
Claudio Vargas	89.3
Scott Schoeneweis	88.8
Tony Armas Jr.	88.8
Pedro Martinez	87.7
Nelson Figueroa	86.9
Pedro Feliciano	86.9
Ricardo Rincon	86.4
Matt Wise	84.2

It shouldn't be surprising that relievers dominate the top of this list. They come into a game for an inning at a time -- if that -- and can really air it out because they know they've only got 20 or so pitches before they hit the showers. Whereas starting pitchers have to pace themselves, relievers don't have to show such restraint. Anyone watching Mets games the last two months of the season has seen that Brian Stokes throws gas, and this chart corroborates that observation.

Mike Pelfrey had the fastest average heater among Mets starting pitchers at 92.7 MPH; Pedro Martinez had the slowest at 87.7. If that looks a little low, consider that his average fastball in limited action in 2007 was 86.2 MPH, so 87.7 is a clear improvement.

Of some concern is Johan Santana's average heater speed of 91.2. He was at 91.7 in 2007 with the Twins, and while a half-mile per hour doesn't seem like much now, it's definitely something worth keeping an eye on as he adds years to his ledger and mileage to his arm. His slider speed dropped (84.9 to 83.5) as did his changeup (81.9 to 80.0). The good news is that the disparity in speed between his fastball and changeup actually increased, though the velocity dip across the board is hardly encouraging. Whether that had anything to do with the deterioration in his strikeout rate (9.66 to 7.91 per nine innings) is not yet clear.

For those curious types, the fastest average fastball belonged to Joel Zumaya at 97.5 MPH. The slowest belonged to Tim Wakefield (72.9), though the slowest non-knuckleballer was Chad Bradford at 79.6. The slowest non-knuckler, non-sidearmer was Jamie Moyer for the fiftieth consecutive season at 81.2 MPH. The average big league fastball was thrown at 90.5 MPH.

Pitch Types

Let's move on from pitch speed and on to pitch selection. Here is the breakdown of pitch type for all Mets pitchers this season, sorted by highest fastball frequency.

Player	FB	SL	CB	CH	CT
Brian Stokes	69.30%		20.80%	9.80%
Billy Wagner	71.10%	28.50%		0.40%
Robert Parnell	75.30%	21.50%		3.20%
Aaron Heilman	64.00%	12.00%		24.00%
Edward Kunz	92.30%	7.70%
Mike Pelfrey	81.20%	12.80%	0.80%	5.10%
Jorge Sosa	50.30%	44.70%		5.10%
John Maine	70.50%	10.10%	1.00%	18.40%
Johan Santana	59.60%	11.70%		28.70%
Oliver Perez	69.20%	26.90%	1.30%	2.60%
Brandon Knight	62.00%	20.90%	13.20%	3.80%
Carlos Muniz	63.80%	31.80%		4.40%
Duaner Sanchez	46.40%	19.00%	3.70%	30.90%
Joe Smith	66.90%	31.10%		2.10%
Jonathon Niese	63.30%	0.40%	24.70%	9.40%	2.20%
Claudio Vargas	62.90%	23.20%		13.80%
Scott Schoeneweis	78.80%	20.80%		0.50%
Tony Armas Jr.	57.40%	36.80%	0.70%	5.10%
Pedro Martinez	56.10%	1.60%	16.00%	19.00%	7.30%
Nelson Figueroa	55.50%	19.70%	18.50%	6.30%
Pedro Feliciano	55.40%	38.40%	0.20%	6.00%
Ricardo Rincon	31.10%	60.70%		8.20%
Matt Wise	42.10%	0.80%		57.10%

(FB=fastball, SL=slider, CB=curveball, CH=changeup, CT=cutter)

One thing that jumps out immediately is that the Mets have a lot of pitchers who all sport basically the same arsenal: Fastball, slider, changeup. Jon Niese, Brian Stokes and Pedro Martinez preferred the curveball to the slider, and Niese and Martinez threw some cutters, but otherwise everyone threw the same three types of pitch. I'm a little surprised that the Mets lacked a single pitcher who throws a split-fingered fastball. Approximately one in eight (11.7%) big league pitchers threw at least 1% splitters in 2008; none threw them for the Mets. The splitter can wreak havoc on a pitcher's elbow, and who's to say that Rick Peterson didn't have a hand in steering the Mets away from that sort of injury risk. We know he was a mechanics freak, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that he advised the Mets to avoid pitchers who featured a splitter.

Quick Hits

Jose Contreras led all qualified starters with splitters accounting for 24.6% of his pitches.
Taylor Buchholz threw more curveballs than anyone else (34.9%).
Tom Glavine threw 43.2% changeups, more than anyone else.
The Cubs' Mike Wuertz threw 60.8% sliders, again, more than anyone else.
Four pitchers were regular knuckleballers: Wakefield, Charlie Zink (Red Sox), Charlie Haeger (Padres) and R.A. Dickey (Rangers).
Two others threw at least one knuckleball: Josh Banks (Padres) and Ryan Franklin (Cardinals), though the latter threw them so infrequently (.4%) that they were probably changeups or curveballs that were simply mis-categorized.
The Angels' Darren O'Day threw 2.5% of his 671 pitches for pitch-outs.
C.C. Sabathia threw more pitches overall than any other big leaguer: 3,814. NL Cy Young candidate Tim Lincecum was second at 3,682, and Sabathia's fellow free agent-to-be A.J. Burnett threw 3,650. Johan Santana was fifth with 3,598 pitches tossed.