J.A. Happ in Pitch F/X

Crashburn Alley — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:54:38 -0000

J.A. Happ in Pitch F/X

A look at all of Happ's pitches so far this season. He needs to be put in the starting rotation ASAP.

Apologies for the shameless self-promotion but I thought it'd be of interest to TGP readers. :)

Stat-Minded Player Recalculating VORP Before Every At Bat

Crashburn Alley — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:37:24 -0000

Stat-Minded Player Recalculating VORP Before Every At Bat

Hat tip to Studeman at THT. The Onion with another gem.

Chris Young's Shaky First Inning

Crashburn Alley — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:28:24 -0000

Chris Young needed 43 pitches to get through the first inning in tonight's game in Philadelphia. He walked two and gave up four hits, including a three-run home run to Chase Utley after back-to-back singles by Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino.

Young's line after he left with two outs in the third inning:

3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR (82 pitches, 51 strikes)

Here's a chart of his tumultuous first inning.

It appears as if Young could only throw his fastball for strikes -- his two sliders were barely in the strike zone and only 4 of his 13 change-ups were in there. Meanwhile, of his 28 fastballs, only 7 were out of the strike zone. All four of the first-inning hits came on fastballs as well. That is a stark contrast to the fact that four of the five hits Young allowed after the first inning came on off-speed pitches (three change-ups, one slider).

Interested in learning how to create Pitch F/X graphs? Check out R.J. Anderson's awesome tutorials, Sky Kalkman's article on understanding the graphs, or check out my supplementary videos.

SB Nation User Blog: Crashburn Alley

J.A. Happ in Pitch F/X