Knuckle Curve » fastball

Deconstructing Lincecum

Geoff Young — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:47:10 +0000

Over at Hardball Times (full disclosure, I contribute to THT), Josh Kalk analyzes San Francisco Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum using PITCHf/x data. Josh likes the movement on Lincecum’s fastball, and compares the youngster to Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets (hopefully without the injuries).

I find the discussion of Lincecum’s offspeed stuff particularly interesting:

Lincecum appears to locate his change well while hiding the pitch and offering a huge speed difference from his fastball. Sounds like a plus plus pitch to me. So why isn’t he throwing it more often? He still must not feel completely comfortable with it or he might be leaning on his fastball a little too much. If he does start to throw his changeup more often, look out.

Sounds like analysis a team can use…

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Schilling to Remain in Beantown?

Geoff Young — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:22:49 +0000

Curt Schilling himself says, “it’s looking good” (have I mentioned lately that I love the fact that Schilling has a blog?), where “it” is the prospect of nailing down a 1-year deal that will keep him in Boston. I don’t have much to add in the way of analysis, so I thought I’d look back a little. This is from Bill Mazeroski’s Baseball ‘92:

In April [Astros manager Art] Howe handed the ball to Curt Schilling, who responded by converting five of his first six save opportunities. Hitters, though, eventually caught up to Schilling. His fastball has movement, but he overthrows everything. He has yet to develop a consistent off-speed pitch, and the longer he goes without fulfilling his potential, the more questions are asked about his makeup. As one scout observed, “Something is missing.”

Schilling was traded to the Phillies less than a week before Opening Day 1992 for Jason Grimsley. The rest, as they say, is history. Almost overnight, Schilling went from being a 25-year-old flamethrowing reliever whose star was falling to a top-flight starting pitcher.

Funny, this game of baseball…

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Analyzing Beckett

Geoff Young — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:45:20 +0000

Ian at Giving 110 Percent examines Boston right-hander Josh Beckett’s first start and finds reasons to be encouraged:

Beckett was using his curve much more often than he did last year. Some were very good, but he was having difficulty locating it. It almost seemed he was being stubborn with it in the same way he would be stubborn with his fastball last year. It’s like Francona and Farrell told him to throw more curves so he did even though he couldn’t locate it that well.

I don’t know enough about Beckett’s stuff to comment meaningfully on the specifics, but I will offer this: It’s possible that if Beckett is trying to feature the curve ball more prominently, he’ll take some short-term losses. The return on investment of having a more diverse repertoire, however, probably will make it worth his and the Red Sox’s while in the long-run.

Perhaps those of you who have seen more of Beckett’s starts might have additional thoughts?

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