Holland-Day! Celebrate!

by erik on Apr 23, 2009 2:20 AM EDT

Forget the 8-7 loss to the Blue Jays in extra innings. Ranger fans have to be ecstatic after witnessing Derek Holland's major league debut last night.

For those of you who don't follow the minors, Holland came out of nowhere last year to land on most prospect-nik's Top 50s. One of the last draft-and-follows signed before MLB changed their signing rules, Holland has always been blessed with exceptional command. What really excited scouts was the upticks in his velocity with each season. He was 89-91 in his season in JUCO, 90-92 in his professional debut in short-season Spokane and then up to 93-98 mid-summer last season, with movement. Holland pitched at three different levels, playing mostly in High-A last year and reached AA before season's end. In just 221.2 minor league innings, Holland racked up 245 punch-outs to just 64 walks before being called up to the Show. While he's starting his career as a reliever, there's no question the long-term plan is starting for Holland.

Holland threw 42 pitches last night, 36 fastballs. His velocity was as good as advertised, throwing 94 on average and topping at 97. He only threw 4 sliders, averaging 85 MPH.

Here's a look at his movement thru pitch f/x --

And now his speed vs. horizontal movement--

Holland's second best pitch is his change-up, which we didn't really see last night. Most scouting reports say that his slider needs some refinement, but it looked alright to me in the very few he threw. One of them made Aaron Hill nearly fall down.

Another season, another crummy Ranger starting rotation. It shouldn't be long before Holland is in the rotation for good. The sooner, the better.

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Thank you for the awesomeness!

Of course, there is no question he’s being mishandled. /sarcasm

And That Happened: Sports with a Hint of Sarcasm

by philkid3 on Apr 23, 2009 2:33 AM EDT reply actions

He's got a pretty wide spread for his release points.

His fastball moves differently each time he throws it. That’s a pretty unique combo, especially from the left side.

Texas Rangers Prospects: Michael Main and Kyle Ocampo - TexasLeaguers.com

by NoNameOnCard on Apr 23, 2009 3:14 AM EDT reply actions

This may be a stupid question. . .

. . . but does he have seeming control and knowledge of what’s happening with his different fastballs when he releases them, or are some releases just prayer’s that they’ll work out? I know Maddux had a million ways throw a fastball and knew what each of them was going to do and where they’d end up, so what I’m asking is do you believe Holland is like that (to a lesser degree) or that it’s just an effect he doesn’t have much control over outside of knowing “this release will make the ball do something differen than that last release).”

Also: any health concerns?

And That Happened: Sports with a Hint of Sarcasm

by philkid3 on Apr 23, 2009 5:13 AM EDT up reply actions

It's hard to say.

He literally flies through the air during his stride phase, so the variance is probably partly due to the uncertainty (chaos) involved with such a move.

In looking at his raw PITCHf/x data for release point, movement, and location, there doesn’t seem to be any recognizable pattern. It feels very random, and I don’t have the math skills to handle a regression to figure out two dependent variables. In other words, I don’t know, but I think it’s unpredictable.

If the fastball never moves the same way twice, it’s going to be really tough to read and hit.

Texas Rangers Prospects: Michael Main and Kyle Ocampo - TexasLeaguers.com

by NoNameOnCard on Apr 23, 2009 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions

taking the "release" back to 55 ft

They are all within 4 inches vertically, which is about as good as I’d think PFX can do. There’s almost a full foot of spread laterally, which has no angle to it – straight across – which tells me he’s just switching spots on the rubber a bit. It doesn’t seem to vary by batter hand or pitch type, as NNOC noted.

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 23, 2009 9:42 PM EDT up reply actions