Harry Pavlidis

Just to depress myself before the Cubs game, I ran some numbers on The Freak. I re-classified his pitches, I'd say 90% complete in terms of sorting out stray sliders (for example), and no sinker/heater breakdown. Still scary.

Some good stuff, and some concerning stuff, on Caridad.

This week at THT, I take look at Gil Meche's down year, in particular, his four-seam fastball.

Ruh-roh

Smoltz and Lilly have both cooled off lately, judging by their rv100 and rv100E. Smoltz has owned the Cubs over his career.

Sure, Lehr shut the Cubs out last month. But I still smell four in a row.

Once a Cub, now a Pirate. Joe Kerrigan has made some changes. While it may look like it hasn't worked, I suspect there's some luck balancing out. And a few less strikes being thrown. Either way, too early to tell, but Hart has changed the mix.

It was only five innings, but it was top notch.

He'll throw over the top, pretty hard at times, and will change speeds. More at the link.

Kevin Gregg put his splitter down for a few days and replaced it with a cutter. The splitter made its return Thursday, so I graphed all of the pitches (in aggregate, five types) thrown since the cutter's debut.

A couple thoughts on the Cubs "pitching", and Zambrano's "stamina".

A PiTCHf/x look at Garrett Mock. I'm not sure we can expect the Cubs to knock him out early again, but it isn't out of the question.

PITCHf/x on Haeger.

Thought I'd link this for two, related, reasons 1. Latos has thrown a lot more change-ups since his debut 2. As a result, it struck me that his fastball/change move a little like Rich Harden's do. They're facing each other in about an hour.

A PITCHf/x preview of today's opposing starter.

Profiles of Atkins, Berg, Caridad, Patton, Samardzija and Stevens.

I figured this would be of interest over here. Some PITCHf/x analysis of Burke Badenhop.

Badenhop moves out of the bullpen to take today's start against Big Z.

New, but familiar, lefties. Grabow seems a little more useful than Gorzelanny.

Not much of a look thanks to an efficient outing, but enough to get a gauge on Atkins.