MASH Report (3/29/13)

by
April 29, 2013

Today, I am going to take a look at the fastball speeds and other traits for three pitchers returning from the DL.

• Sean Marshall’s velocity is down almost 2 MPH from 2012 (90.8 to 89.0 mph) after returning from the DL for shoulder discomfort.

Even though he has pitched great in his two appearances since returning, he is taking longer between pitches. He has gone from about 25 seconds to over 28 seconds. He may be taking long for the pain to subside or is just lost. The increase has not been because of base runners because he hasn’t allowed one all season. I am not 100% sold that he is 100% healthy yet. Enjoy the production for now, but don’t be surprised to lose him again later during the season.

• John Lackey made a great first impression after making his first MLB start since 2011. His velocity is up about 0.5 MPH for the season, but in his Sunday start, his fastball averaged only 90 mph (almost a career low).

More intriguing to me was his release points. First, here are his release points to LHH during the game.

Besides one pitch being off, they are grouped together fairly tight. Now here are his release points against RHH.

It is all over the place. I am not sure what is means. Is he moving around on the rubber? Different arm angle? He has never before used two release points for different handed hitters. If I owned him, I might be trying to sell high right now. Expect more on him in the coming days.

• Shaun Marcum’s first start of the season did not go well. He threw 71 pitches over 4 innings allowing 3 runs. His velocity is down 1 mph from last season (86.5 to 85.4).

While I don’t like to look at a pitcher’s Zone% in just one start, but his 39.4% value was extremely low. His inability of throw strikes with his slower fastball just puts up a huge red flag for me. I would just stay away.

Players on the DL





 

Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

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Matthew Murphy
10 years ago

Lackey is moving around on the rubber based on the batter he is facing. I took a couple screenshots here:
http://www.ballgamebanter.com/2013/04/john-lackey-defies-convention.html
I actually wrote about it last week, but made a mistake. Most pitchers who shift their position on the rubber move to the same side that the batter is on (for Lackey, this would be third base side against righties), but I realized that he’s actually doing the opposite. No idea why, though.
(first post: http://www.ballgamebanter.com/2013/04/whats-different-about-john-lackey.html)

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