And sometimes pounding the zone works out
DMZ · April 23, 2009 at 6:15 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Felix threw 72 (identified) fastballs and 32 other pitches of any kind.
Interestingly, he did manage to get some varied movement:
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Makes it pretty hard to tell him he could be doing things better.
Pretty good outing against a good lineup, so huzzah!
Well before FSN crapped out I noticed Felix’s fastball had a ton of movement. I liked what I saw.
Too bad our hitting is weak and we have 2 (possibly 1 if RRS comes back healthy) deadweights in this starting rotation of ours.
Otherwise this team looks good and Felix is a big part of that.
Earth to Jack Z and ownership, SIGN FELIX LONG TERM NOW!!!!!!!!!
I’ve never understood the uproar over Felix’s FB%. I always thought the problem was the fact he was starting games with 10 fastballs in a row, not the overall total, no? Take a look at the five guys above and below Felix on Fangraphs’ list of starters sorted by FB% last season…
Maddux, Beckett, Lincecum, Zambrano, Oswalt, Felix, Cain, Burnett, Wellemeyer,Guthrie & Redding.
Not a bad group, plus he has the highest average velo of the bunch.
It’s not that his FB is bad or anything, it’s just that it’s not his best pitch. Throwing your 2nd (or 3rd depending on whether you’re talking the 2 or 4 seam variety) that much just seems like a waste, and throwing it predictably is even worse no matter how good your velocity is.
Well… yes. But also no.
Felix’s best pitch isn’t the fastball. It’s not even his second-best. I want him to use his best pitches more.
Now, maybe that doesn’t work. That’s one discussion. The other is the “establish the fastball” nonsense, which we know doesn’t work.
And tonight, it was
– four fastballs to Upton, a “slider”, two fastballs
– two fastballs to Crawford
– three fastballs to Longoria, a “slider”, a fastball
That’s just… it ain’t right.
Yeah, I don’t want him coming out and throwing 90% fastballs in the first inning, but all the pitches work together. His best pitches wouldn’t be his best pitches without his fastball. So, I really don’t have a problem with the overall total. Variance is the key, but the total percentage of fastballs isn’t a problem.
“Today was a special case,” said the Suzuki, an eight-time All-Star and perennial 200-hit man whose other home run this season tied the career hits record for a Japanese player. “Even before the game started, we could all tell the type of game it was likely to be. I kept thinking, ‘Do your best, Felix! Do your best, Felix!”
Just had to post this little clip from the ESPN bit on the Mariners win, I just thought it was appropriate since Ichiro gives us a quote.
I was at the game yesterday and we commented on how Felix’s fastball was consistently in the 92-94mph range (we saw nothing faster than 94). But this chart seems to show quite a few dots above the 94mph line – I wonder which radar gun to believe…
The data Dave is using is the Pitch F/X data, which doesn’t come from a radar gun. Pitch F/X uses calibrated cameras and computers that identify the time when the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand and the time when it reaches the plate, and uses that to compute speed. As a result, Pitch F/X captures the total motion vector of the ball, and then breaks that out as horizontal and vertical movement as well as the approach speed; the latter is all that (not necessarily calibrated) radar guns give us.