Knuckle Curve » chad_bradford

What Was That Pitch?

Geoff Young — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:13:46 +0000

This is sort of, um, what’s the right word — stunning? John Walsh at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) has done some terrific work with the new Enhanced Gameday pitch-f/x data that is all the rage:

What I want to cover is how to identify the pitches of any pitcher’s repertoire, given the fabulous pitch-f/x data that several others and I have been working with this season. What does he throw? How hard does he throw each kind of pitch? What sort of movement is he getting?

In addition to describing basic pitch types and what they look like in the data, John examines the repertoires of 17 current big-league pitchers. I find the side-by-side comparisons of “similar” pitcher types (e.g., sidearmers Chad Bradford, Cla Meredith, Peter Moylan, Pat Neshek) particularly intriguing.

I need to chew on this a lot more — I mean, a lot more. John has provided something here that promises to be useful to researchers and, eventually, casual observers of baseball. Fascinating stuff…

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Orioles Seek Wings

Geoff Young — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:33:51 +0000

Something is rotten in the state of Maryland. The ballclub from Baltimore is in full free fall, and manager Sam Perlozzo has been let go. As everyone knows, when your superiors make poor decisions, you will be the one to suffer for it. Perlozzo ultimately couldn’t rise above his organization’s ineptitude, and now he is looking for work again.

The Orioles, meanwhile, are talking to former Florida Marlins manager Joe Girardi about the vacant position. Girardi, you may recall, led a team with a $15 million payroll to 78 wins last season. That’s a little less than Baltimore is paying Danys Baez, Kris Benson, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker this year.

Girardi gets a lot of credit for the Marlins ‘06 season, as well he should. But let’s not forget that the team had a tremendous amount of young talent thanks to GM Larry Beinfest and the entire front office. Girardi wouldn’t have that working for him in Baltimore. He would have Nick Markakis, Erik Bedard, Adam Loewen, and a boatload of albatrosses.

What is the best this team can hope for in ‘07 — that they finish ahead of Tampa Bay and Toronto? Is the situation likely to improve in the near future? For the sake of Orioles fans everywhere, I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see a lot of cause for optimism here.

Girardi caught in the big leagues for 15 years. In 1996, with the Yankees, he stole 13 bases. If Girardi has anything left in those legs, now would be a good time to start running.

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Baltimore Bullpen Blows

Geoff Young — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:52:38 +0000

I have a hard time imagining that this is what Peter Angelos expected when he laid out serious cash to “fix” his team’s beleaguered bullpen. I wondered at the time what Angelos was thinking, and with news that the Orioles have placed right-hander Danys Baez on the disabled list due to a “forearm strain,” Baltimore’s woes have reached a new low. Here’s how their three big free-agent signings from this past winter (Baez, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker) have fared to date:

Baltimore “Big Three” Relievers
	$M	IP	ERA	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	K/9
Stats are through games of June 17, 2007, and are courtesy of ESPN.
Walker	3.00	25.1	3.55	8.53	0.36	2.49	6.75
Bradford	3.00	26.1	3.76	11.28	0.00	2.05	5.47
Baez	4.00	29.0	6.52	8.38	1.86	4.97	5.28
Total	10.00	80.2	4.69	9.37	0.78	3.24	5.80
AL average	–	–	4.23	8.60	0.84	4.10	7.10

According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, all three of these guys have deals that run through 2009. Next year, they will cost the Orioles a combined $12.5 million, and the year after that, they’ll cost $13.5 million. And they’ll eat up three spots in the bullpen as well.

The bad news is, Baltimore won’t be able to trade any of these relievers without absorbing some of the cost. (Same with Ramon Hernandez, but as a catcher, he falls under a different subcategory of Truly Awful Ideas). The good news is, Baez isn’t likely to collect the extra $1 million he would earn by being the team leader in Rolaids points.

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