Gavin Floyd's Emergence

by R.J. Anderson on May 7, 2008 4:20 PM EDT Comment 5 comments

Floyd almost had a no-hitter again last night and brought his season stats 39.7 IP, 20 H, 18 BB, and 19 Ks, not exactly a great K:BB rate, but his hit rate has allowed Floyd to find success. Floyd's K rate is down, BB rate up, LD and GB% down, and his FB% up, but his FB/HR% is of course down. Floyd has also been greeted with an especially lucky BABIP thus far that will almost surely regress (or progress in this case) to the mean.

Even with that information something I found interesting looking at his pitchf/x charts is that he's seemingly added a few new pitches.

2007:

via baseball.bornbybits.com

And now 2008, note how he throws pitches that have more break now:

via baseball.bornbybits.com

That's only horizontal movement, make sure to check out his 2008 page and the 2007 card for comparison. Gavin has gotten away with the awful K:BB rate because he's seemingly fooling hitters with added pitches, but I can't see this lasting for long, so if you have him, sell high, otherwise don't buy, despite the no-hitter tries.

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In the 2008 data there are some calibration issues. Those tailing curves (and very much tailing fastballs [even a 2-seamer will only tail 10-12 inches]) are probably from a single start in a stadium that was picking up the release point incorrectly.

by ultxmxpx on May 7, 2008 7:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I see

I knew there were some issues, but I didn’t know if that would apply here.

"I've seen many, many blue skies turn gray, but the sun will eventually return, and so will I. So will I." - Carlos Pena

by R.J. Anderson on May 7, 2008 8:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Stupid enter key

That would also explain why he suddenly began throwing three more pitches.

Thanks.

"I've seen many, many blue skies turn gray, but the sun will eventually return, and so will I. So will I." - Carlos Pena

by R.J. Anderson on May 7, 2008 8:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know if you've seen this

but this is another good tool. You have to know what you’re looking for though (i.e. the date of the data you want) and it doesn’t say what type of pitch each data point is.
http://38.99.108.6/pfx/index.php

Here’s some graphs of last night’s game:
http://38.99.108.6/pfx/index.php?month=5&day=6&game=gid_2008_05_06_minmlb_chamlb_1%2F&pitchSel=425856.xml&prevGame=gid_2008_05_06_minmlb_chamlb_1%2F&prevDate=56
Looks like threw just two change-ups; a good number of sliders and curves. It also looks like he throws a 2 and 4 seam fastball, but the division isn’t clear between the two like for most pitchers. It also looks like he tired a few mph.

by ultxmxpx on May 7, 2008 9:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs