Game 141, Yankees at Mariners
Ponson vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith.
In the spirit of Dave’s Graphing Weekend, and since a few of you guys liked the ones I did for Morrow’s start last night, here’s a graph of Rowland-Smith’s last start versus Cleveland. Velocity is still on the vertical axis and pitch count is on the horizontal axis.
There are basically three distinct areas where you’ll see mostly consistent values – his fastball in the upper 80s, his change-up around 80, and his breaking ball around 70. Despite the fact that he doesn’t throw very hard, as you can see, he throws a ton of change-ups to keep RH batters off balance. Against lefties, he threw 9 fastballs and 8 curveballs with no change-ups. Against righties, it was 48 fastballs, 33 changeups, and 9 curveballs.
The change-up is really the pitch that allows RR-S to get RH hitters off balance, and if he succeeds as a starter long term, that pitch will be the reason why.
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Cool.
Great post Dave. This is the reason I’m addicted to your website.
Aye. That’s neat you can see three distinct strata. I’m enjoying Dave’s Graphing Weekend (in addition to putting an offer in today on our first home!). Thanks a lot, Dave.
Norm was on the radio yesterday, and commented that when he saw RRS three years ago in the minors, he didn’t think he’d make it as a starter ….
and a note in Baker’s blog:
“By the way, I just chatted with Shannon Drayer moments ago. She’ll be filling in for Brad Adam on FSN when the team heads off on its next road trip. She’s never done TV before. This isn’t permanent. Adam just can’t make the trip.”
Good for Shannon. I wish her well.
I saw the note on Drayer, and am glad we’ll get to see her before, hopefully, she shows up on KIRO next season.
And galaxieboi-congrats on the house. I hope they take your offer. I’ll never forget the day I bought my house. The night my offer was accepted, I remember going to bed, and being suddenly hit with “OMG I just bought a HOUSE!” Kind of a euphoria+panic moment.
Finally, Dave, those graphs are great.
I wish they’d stop saying that Betemit’s hit was “over Ichiro’s head”, as the only reason it was any where near Ichiro’s head was that he ran like a fiend to get near the ball …
yeah, she looks like a life-time Yankee fan.
I love that Dave says it should be caught, and then Raul doesn’t get to it…classic…
A rock would have enough range to get to and catch Matsui’s “double.”
Dave’s poor fiancée. “Honey, at the conclusion of our honeymoon I’d like to offer you a graph…”
Wow, did anybody catch the crazy Rays-Jays game?
and then Dave corrects himself, and says, looking again he was wrong to say that it should have been caught, followed by Blow pointing out that a better throw would have gotten Matsui …
Boy…no problems with the glove on that play!
Hey is anyone watching this game?
I’m watching. And there was just a play/call I’ve never ever seen in 40 years of watching baseball. Ponson called for interference in the rundown of Betancourt. It’s always fun to see something new after this much baseball in my life.
Why was that a “productive out”? Yuni was in scoring position already.
Betancourt studied at the AJ Pierzynski school of baserunning, apparently.
That was a strange play…but Ponson was in the way there…oh well..it was all for nothing anyways…*sigh*
Go M’s I love it when we beat the Yankees and last night’s game is officially my favorite game this year now!!!
There was a controversy over a call like that in a Phillies game, early this year (IIRC).
Shane Victorino was caught off first like that, and turned toward second with a player almost in his way, perhaps a foot further out of the runner’s path than Ponson was in this game. Victorino veered off and purposely made contact with a fielder. He got the call.
Reading the stories on it the next day, it seems the rule says that the runner can run almost wherever he pleases, so the call was right.
So the runner should at least never try to avoid a fieder in that situation. He should hope for contact.
Oky let’s see if Reed can get it done…I wish his bat would wake up, I like his defense over Wlad…
Well there ya go…a double!!
Ponson looks like he’s been hangin’ out with Silva at Sizzler…
Oh right, I forgot about about AJ’s play.
RIZZS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
(scrambling for remote)
DMZ-
I swear to god, I had the EXACT reaction…lol…
It may seem petty, but I love it that A-ROD still gets booed every at-bat…
Sucks that it was a homer, but RRS had a pretty funny reaction…
Future Mariner first-baseman Jason Giambi? Oh wait, Chuck says they won’t sign any big money free-agents…riiiiiiight….
And someone get The Bus away from Morrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know they’re not supposed to play “plate music” for the visiting players as a rule, but I think it’d be hilarious if the sound tech would throw on Madonna’s “Into The Groove” for A-Rod every time he stepped up for an at-bat.
“Ponson looks like he’s been hangin’ out with Silva at Sizzler…”
-Too funny, BJ!
Didn’t some sound tech get fired a few years ago for playing music about the pitchers ex-wife or something?
He’s working on his timing, no question about it.
::::like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard::::
[Rizzs]
Good call…
This man can have as many U’s as he wants.
RRRAAAAUUULLL!!!
Gawd I’m gonna miss this guy next year…
Rauuul!!!!
Exactly 100 RBI for the year.
Bako: Not sure if that ever happened or not, but it might have. My guess on that would be playing a Whitesnake song during one of Chuck Finley’s starts back in the 90′s…
Oh, BTW, good job RAUUUUUUUL!!!
They used to play ‘Werewolves of London’ for Raul when he was with the Royals….does that count?
Nice work tonight, RRS!
Too bad these two rotations were off by a day…they could’ve billed Sir Sidney vs. The Burger Chef as a WBC heavyweight title bout!
..and then when Silva gets his azz whooped he would just blame his team mates for their lack of support…
Actually Washburn vs Ponson would’ve been a good matchup too, given that Ponson is the guy the Yankees picked up for the spot they were going to give to Washburn (if they could’ve agreed to terms, ie if Cashman had offered Armstrong whatever delusional value he thought he should get for Washburn).
Well..there goes the lead…damn I was hoping we could get RRS a win tonight
scott19-
That was it!!!!
I agree — especially considering that Mussina should probably be able to beat Silva tomorrow blindfolded and hog-tied.
Well, crud. Clement is done for the year, and will be having knee surgery on Monday. As per Dave on the radio.
Well thank God we signed Joh to that extension!
sheesh. it was 1-0 when I left.
Baker adds: “Clement has a torn meniscus in the knee that’s prevented him from playing of late.”
Yuni is soooooooo bad…
We had such high hopes for the “future gold-glove winning all-star…”
And Cairo is the pinch-hitter…wow…
Oh well, at least the NFL starts for real tomorrow…night all…