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Post by inger on Sept 27, 2019 0:00:45 GMT -5
Aroldis Chapman / 31 yrs./ 6’ 4”, 212, LH Closer / 3-2; 2.25/ 37 saves
Currently leading the AL in saves with 37, Chapman holds RHH to a .195 with 3 HR allowed. In the rather rare event the opposing manager allows a LHH to bat against him, they are hitting only .167 and none have homered off him in 2019.
His season was marred a bit my a poor July that saw him issue 11 free passes and 8 earned runs in just 8.2 innings vs. only 14 walks and 6 earned runs during the remaining months.
He has a tendency to allow leadoff batters to track, as they have a .360 OBP against him, but in most other at bats, which are qualified as high leverage situations he’s help batters to a slash of .169/..272/.225.
4S FB, 98-103. Very fast, though straight as can be, the pitch is tough to barrel, getting swings and misses along with a lot of ground balls. The pitch has added velocity as the season has grown late, and it makes up about 60% of his mix.
Slider, 86. Sweeps and often dives as well. Extreme swing and miss action.
Sinker, 101. Tends to get great velocity on the pitch and also is a good pitch to drop the hitters eye level. A lot more swing and miss than most sinkers, has also become faster late in the season.
Batters have connected for a .583 BA on line drives, which is pretty low for liners...Many are jam shots off that fast stuff...
Change up, 88. He’s only been charted throwing one this season, not much to say about it...
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Post by kaybli on Sept 27, 2019 0:43:15 GMT -5
Aroldis Chapman / 31 yrs./ 6’ 4”, 212, LH Closer / 3-2; 2.25/ 37 saves Currently leading the AL in saves with 37, Chapman holds RHH to a .195 with 3 HR allowed. In the rather rare event the opposing manager allows a LHH to bat against him, they are hitting only .167 and none have homered off him in 2019. His season was marred a bit my a poor July that saw him issue 11 free passes and 8 earned runs in just 8.2 innings vs. only 14 walks and 6 earned runs during the remaining months. He has a tendency to allow leadoff batters to track, as they have a .360 OBP against him, but in most other at bats, which are qualified as high leverage situations he’s help batters to a slash of .169/..272/.225. 4S FB, 98-103. Very fast, though straight as can be, the pitch is tough to barrel, getting swings and misses along with a lot of ground balls. The pitch has added velocity as the season has grown late, and it makes up about 60% of his mix. Slider, 86. Sweeps and often dives as well. Extreme swing and miss action. Sinker, 101. Tends to get great velocity on the pitch and also is a good pitch to drop the hitters eye level. A lot more swing and miss than most sinkers, has also become faster late in the season. Batters have connected for a .583 BA on line drives, which is pretty low for liners...Many are jam shots off that fast stuff... Change up, 88. He’s only been charted throwing one this season, not much to say about it... Ooooh, relief pitcher scouting reports! What a treat! |
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Post by inger on Sept 27, 2019 9:13:58 GMT -5
Aroldis Chapman / 31 yrs./ 6’ 4”, 212, LH Closer / 3-2; 2.25/ 37 saves Currently leading the AL in saves with 37, Chapman holds RHH to a .195 with 3 HR allowed. In the rather rare event the opposing manager allows a LHH to bat against him, they are hitting only .167 and none have homered off him in 2019. His season was marred a bit my a poor July that saw him issue 11 free passes and 8 earned runs in just 8.2 innings vs. only 14 walks and 6 earned runs during the remaining months. He has a tendency to allow leadoff batters to track, as they have a .360 OBP against him, but in most other at bats, which are qualified as high leverage situations he’s help batters to a slash of .169/..272/.225. 4S FB, 98-103. Very fast, though straight as can be, the pitch is tough to barrel, getting swings and misses along with a lot of ground balls. The pitch has added velocity as the season has grown late, and it makes up about 60% of his mix. Slider, 86. Sweeps and often dives as well. Extreme swing and miss action. Sinker, 101. Tends to get great velocity on the pitch and also is a good pitch to drop the hitters eye level. A lot more swing and miss than most sinkers, has also become faster late in the season. Batters have connected for a .583 BA on line drives, which is pretty low for liners...Many are jam shots off that fast stuff... Change up, 88. He’s only been charted throwing one this season, not much to say about it... Ooooh, relief pitcher scouting reports! What a treat! If I do one for Mike Ford, somebody please stop me... |
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Post by kaybli on Sept 27, 2019 13:03:31 GMT -5
Ooooh, relief pitcher scouting reports! What a treat! If I do one for Mike Ford, somebody please stop me...  |
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Post by sierchio on Sept 27, 2019 13:55:52 GMT -5
Good quality writing inger. I only read the Chapman one but I didn't realize it wasn't just a copy paste off some professional website. A+ Maybe you should've been a sportswriter
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Post by inger on Sept 27, 2019 14:03:37 GMT -5
Good quality writing inger. I only read the Chapman one but I didn't realize it wasn't just a copy paste off some professional website. A+ Maybe you should've been a sportswriter Aww, shucks. Ya’ embarrass me...The information comes from multiple on line sites. I don’t deserve a whole lot of credit for stealing others research... |
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Post by kaybli on Sept 27, 2019 15:49:52 GMT -5
Good quality writing inger. I only read the Chapman one but I didn't realize it wasn't just a copy paste off some professional website. A+ Maybe you should've been a sportswriter Aww, shucks. Ya’ embarrass me...The information comes from multiple on line sites. I don’t deserve a whole lot of credit for stealing others research... You definitely deserve credit for presenting them in a coherent and informative way. I look forward to reading every one! |
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Post by inger on Sept 27, 2019 16:25:19 GMT -5
Okay. I confess. I am proud of them, and I got an “A” in plagiarism in English class...
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Post by kaybli on Sept 27, 2019 16:30:05 GMT -5
Okay. I confess. I am proud of them, and I got an “A” in plagiarism in English class... That's the spirit! You should be proud of them! |
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Post by inger on Sept 30, 2019 22:49:18 GMT -5
Zack Britton / 3-1; 1.91 / 6’3”, 195/ Th: L , age 31
The stats are amazing. .191/.299/.276 with 3 HR vs RHH. Against left-handed hitters he’s .158/.269/.193 without allowing any HR.
I have to admit that I have not researched relievers extensively, but I don’t see how any pitcher could have much more of a ground ball tendency than his. On batted balls, he’s allowed 121 ground balls vs. 14 fly balls and 23 line drives. His weakness is that he’ll lose the strike zone once in a while. But that is also one of his strengths, as he often gets batters to chase pitches below the zone. Patient teams can force him to bring the pitches up, but at times he counteracts that with a curve that looks even more like a strike and for longer than the sinker.
Sinker, 95-96. Throws the pitch harder than most sinker ballers. It has good natural sink that gets plenty of swing and miss action with extreme ground ball tendencies.
Curve ball, 81. Has some glove side movement. Is thrown hard and has more than average 12-5 break for the speed he throws it. He gets swings and misses and ground ball action.
At 31, he’s not the same pitcher he was. He abandoned his 4S fastball back in 2014. Since then, he’s lost about 1.5-2.0 MPH ofc his sinker, but has reduced the usage of the pitch from near 95% to 85% as he’s introduced a much sharper curve ball that has grown from a novelty to a very effective 15% of his arsenal. He’s adapted, and has done so before necessity pushed him in that direction. This is still closer stuff...
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Post by kaybli on Oct 1, 2019 0:17:19 GMT -5
Zack Britton / 3-1; 1.91 / 6’3”, 195/ Th: L , age 31 The stats are amazing. .191/.299/.276 with 3 HR vs RHH. Against left-handed hitters he’s .158/.269/.193 without allowing any HR. I have to admit that I have not researched relievers extensively, but I don’t see how any pitcher could have much more of a ground ball tendency than his. On batted balls, he’s allowed 121 ground balls vs. 14 fly balls and 23 line drives. His weakness is that he’ll lose the strike zone once in a while. But that is also one of his strengths, as he often gets batters to chase pitches below the zone. Patient teams can force him to bring the pitches up, but at times he counteracts that with a curve that looks even more like a strike and for longer than the sinker. Sinker, 95-96. Throws the pitch harder than most sinker ballers. It has good natural sink that gets plenty of swing and miss action with extreme ground ball tendencies. Curve ball, 81. Has some glove side movement. Is thrown hard and has more than average 12-5 break for the speed he throws it. He gets swings and misses and ground ball action. At 31, he’s not the same pitcher he was. He abandoned his 4S fastball back in 2014. Since then, he’s lost about 1.5-2.0 MPH ofc his sinker, but has reduced the usage of the pitch from near 95% to 85% as he’s introduced a much sharper curve ball that has grown from a novelty to a very effective 15% of his arsenal. He’s adapted, and has done so before necessity pushed him in that direction. This is still closer stuff... I thought he threw a slider not a curveball? |
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Post by inger on Oct 1, 2019 3:25:17 GMT -5
Interesting. According to Brooks Baseball, Britton abandoned throwing sliders way back in 2013, switching to a curveball. Baseball Savant is calling his breaking pitch a slider.
Is suppose by any name, it’s quite an effective pitch...The Fangraphs report that I read spoke strictly to his sinker and never got into the breaker, and I do know that he throws some sort of noticeable breaking ball.
BTW: Fangraphs offers up confirmation of my suspicions that Britton has “by far” the highest ground ball rate...That article, written in mid-2019 also expressed a concern that Britton throws more pitches out of the strike zone than most pitchers, and that batters have caught on and are not swing at the rate they were previously. Maybe so, but after that date, it seems the swings were back...
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Post by kaybli on Oct 1, 2019 3:33:35 GMT -5
Interesting. According to Brooks Baseball, Britton abandoned throwing sliders way back in 2013, switching to a curveball. Baseball Savant is calling his breaking pitch a slider. Is suppose by any name, it’s quite an effective pitch...The Fangraphs report that I read spoke strictly to his sinker and never got into the breaker, and I do know that he throws some sort of noticeable breaking ball. BTW: Fangraphs offers up confirmation of my suspicions that Britton has “by far” the highest ground ball rate...That article, written in mid-2019 also expressed a concern that Britton throws more pitches out of the strike zone than most pitchers, and that batters have caught on and are not swing at the rate they were previously. Maybe so, but after that date, it seems the swings were back... In MLB the Show, not that a video game is a reliable reference, its a slider so I always assumed it was a slider. Let's hope those ground balls don't find holes like they sometimes magically do in the playoffs! |
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Post by inger on Oct 1, 2019 11:21:06 GMT -5
When I look at the pitch, I see a 12-5 curve ball. One interesting thing about Zack is that his sinker has only an average amount of sink, and he is either throwing a slider with almost no sweep, or a curveball that has average downward movement with a touch of run. That’s it. He makes it work by throwing very few balls in the middle of the plate and tempting hitters to swing at pitches at the very edges of the zone, especially under the zone.
He seems to be taking advantage of the more aggressive mentality MLB hitters have taken on, and his velocity seems to be perhaps overly important as compared to most sinker ball pitchers.
I think he might still be sneaking a 4-seamer in once in a while, but perhaps he just throws a few intentional high sinkers to change eye level. There is some mystery there. That’s a good thing. He may not always be getting charted exactly what he’s throwing, and not correcting anyone. The best weapon you can have is one the enemy doesn’t know you have. Perhaps even trying to figure out if he’s throwing a slider or a curve would be enough to put a batter off his game mentally if he were having difficulty hitting Britton...
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Post by inger on Oct 1, 2019 21:33:29 GMT -5
Adam Ottavino 6-5; 1.90 / 6’5” 220, Rh, 33 years old
One of those effectively wild pitchers, Ottavino’s dour expression on the mound never changes. He can be very wild at times, but stays tough in the high leverage situations that the base runners the are produced are often stranded.
He’s especially tough against RHH (.177:.292/.266) with his combination punch of a sweeping slider and a cutter with hard cutting action that almost produce a mirror image of each other.
One other hand lefties can be a challenge (.242/.362/.392). He may be overusing his sinker against them, as he threw 202 of the total 459 vs. lefties even though lefties only had slightly more than 1/3 of the AB against him.
Over all his hard hit and exit stats against were among the lowest in the league. If he can control his walks, he’s very tough. Sadly, his walk % is one of the higher ones in baseball, so it’s fortunate he’s so hard to hit. He does a terrible job holding runners, as 15 of 16 stole successfully against him in 2019.
Slider, 82. The sweeping fly ball pitch allows a lot of soft contact. He uses it about 45% of the time.
Sinker, 94. This is a big swing and miss pitch, especially to RHH, with a natural sinking action that he throws about 40% of the time.
Cutter, 89. Very strong cut, gets a lot of swing and miss. About 13% usage.
4S fastball, 94. Seems to be a pitch that he’s getting away from. Gets swings and misses, but is an extreme FB pitch that will fly a long way if it drifts over the plate.
I’d like to see few more back foot sliders to lefties, which may also be elevated and used as a frightening cutter coming in on their hands to intimidate.
When he misses with his pitches, he tends to miss by a lot and in almost any place, which can cause some deep counts. In spite of the wildness, he only hit two batters this season.
Despite the perceived weaknesses, he’s much better than what most teams can run out to the mound in the sixth or seventh inning...
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