MASH Report (8/8/13)

Injury information is again on the slim side. For some additional information, I decided to look at pitchers with Zone%’s under 45% and took a request from a FanGraphs writers.

• Chris Archer was removed from his start last night with forearm tightness after only 30 pitches. I went back and looked at the game data and nothing seemed out of place. His velocity and release points were consistent. The Rays may have caught the injury in time.

• Ryan Madson was cut by the Angels. He was coming off Tommy John surgery and was not going to be able to pitch in the majors this season.

• J.A. Happ saw a decent spike in his velocity after coming back from the DL

• Marco Estrada’s average fastball velocity was consistent with speeds recorded earlier in the season.

• I found out Jason Hammel was dealing with forearm tightness the entire season. Besides just general suckitude, he had only one sign of an injury, a less than 1 mph drop in velocity. The more I look at pitchers, I am finding it harder and harder to differentiate the injured from healthy ones compared to hitters.

• Fellow writer Brett Talley was wondering if Mitch Moreland’s struggles may be injury related. Lets take a look.

1. His ISO is up over the past two seasons (.206 vs .193 and .155).
2. His Speed score is the same as last season (1.9)
3. His contact rate is the same as last season (77%)

He is seeing no decline in power, speed or contact. Moreland’s struggles are more to do with his over 30 point drop in BABIP, not an injury.

Pitchers with a Pitchf/x Zone% of 45% or less (min 40 IP)

Name	Zone%	IP
Scott Rice	37.9%	41.2
Jason Marquis	39.2%	117.2
Brad Ziegler	40.1%	51.1
Craig Stammen	40.2%	60.2
Francisco Liriano	40.8%	102.2
Lucas Harrell	41.0%	122.1
Jeff Locke	41.0%	131.1
Paco Rodriguez	41.8%	41.0
Luis Mendoza	42.3%	86.1
Wily Peralta	42.4%	136.1
Bryan Morris	42.6%	48.0
Jake Westbrook	42.7%	103.0
Luis Avilan	42.9%	46.2
J.P. Howell	43.4%	47.0
Yoervis Medina	43.6%	46.0
Josh Johnson	43.7%	81.1
Yovani Gallardo	44.2%	128.1
Sergio Romo	44.5%	41.2
Michael Gonzalez	44.6%	41.0
Matt Albers	44.7%	41.1
Zack Greinke	44.9%	111.1
Adam Warren	45.0%	53.0

• Sadly, the list of players is extremely similar to the players on the PAIN leaderboads. At FG, there is no way to split the Pitchf/x data up by first and second half of the season. Let me see if I code some thing up to get the values by month for Monday’s article. Sorry for not being more helpful.

Players on the DL

(*) 15 Day Disabled List
(**) 60 Day Disabled List
(***) 7 Day Concussion List
(****) Free Agent
Red colored entries are updates since last report.