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Graphing 101: PitchFx (Release Points)

I'm sure everyone has seen the awesome work provided by Pitchfx gurus like our own Harry, but how many of you have asked yourself: "Mick, how in the world can I make something like that?" Well, today (and a few others) are your lucky days because I'm going to walk you through how to make a few of the charts.

First up: release points.

  • Assuming you know how to pull data from Gameday, go here and grab you a pitcher's data. If not, go here, find a pitcher, hit "Extended Tabled Data", copy that, and paste special (text) into Excel.
  • From there, find the column labeled "z0", highlight the numbers and hit the "chart/graph" button.
  • Select scatter plot.
  • For the x-values you will need to highlight the "x0" column.
  • Fix the min and max data points on each axis (usually 0, 7 for y axis and -3, 3 for x)
  • Add any extra touches you may want.

Now you can easily compare pitchers, pitchers pitches, and whatever else you could desire from release points using the same method.  For instance, here's a look at J.P. Howell and sidearmer Brian Shouse.

Shouseversushowell_medium

Quite a change in eye level, eh?

3 recs  |  Comment 51 comments |

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How Coincidental

I just made my first graph and was going on here to find your email address in order to ask you some questions. I guess one of my questions were answered =)

A noob or n00b is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word with teenage society.

a noob could be simply a level 100 running round shouting ‘’WTF DO I GO!?’’ or someone calling someone else a noob and then getting hit with a brick, anyone can call anyone a noob, but normally they are noobs themselves
-robert_d_wilfong

by cwhitman412 on Apr 9, 2009 11:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Well, Not Exactly

Are you going to have some more of this on here? I could use some help. If not will you respond to emails?

A noob or n00b is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word with teenage society.

a noob could be simply a level 100 running round shouting ‘’WTF DO I GO!?’’ or someone calling someone else a noob and then getting hit with a brick, anyone can call anyone a noob, but normally they are noobs themselves
-robert_d_wilfong

by cwhitman412 on Apr 9, 2009 11:25 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah and yeah.

Strikezone, breaks, and velocity should be coming during the next week.

by R.J. Anderson on Apr 9, 2009 11:26 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Shweetness

I’m excited.

A noob or n00b is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word with teenage society.

a noob could be simply a level 100 running round shouting ‘’WTF DO I GO!?’’ or someone calling someone else a noob and then getting hit with a brick, anyone can call anyone a noob, but normally they are noobs themselves
-robert_d_wilfong

by cwhitman412 on Apr 9, 2009 11:29 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Awesome

R.J., thanks for this. I’ve always been a step or two away from creating readable Pitch F/X graphs.

Do you know of any place where the column headers are explained? What’s the difference between x0, y0, and z0? vx0?

:o

by Crashburn Alley on Apr 10, 2009 2:23 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

just to prove that i still read/like you guys

cool and useful stuff.

THIS STORY ONLY ENDS ONE WAY

by colintj on Apr 10, 2009 2:42 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

How detailed is this series going to get?

Are you only working with one game data, or are you going to introduce creating a database (basically an update of Mike Fast’s instructions)?

by mlbnotebook on Apr 10, 2009 11:11 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Honestly, I don't even have a database of my own.

Unless I’m mistaken, I believe Mr. Wyers has a write-up on StatSpeak a while back detailing how to create a PFX database.

by R.J. Anderson on Apr 10, 2009 11:13 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Stat Speak had one guest posted by Mike Fast

I have his PERL script, but I have errors and have no idea how to fix them.

If anyone knows about this code, or Perl in general, and is willing to help, send me an email. It would be much appreciated.

by mlbnotebook on Apr 10, 2009 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Hey, I actually am here all the time

And I’ve done a parser and instructions too.

Check here.

by Dan Turkenkopf on Apr 10, 2009 6:20 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Ummm.

I know nothing about code, is there any way to make a database by just following instructions somewhere? >.<

A noob or n00b is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word with teenage society.

a noob could be simply a level 100 running round shouting ‘’WTF DO I GO!?’’ or someone calling someone else a noob and then getting hit with a brick, anyone can call anyone a noob, but normally they are noobs themselves
-robert_d_wilfong

by cwhitman412 on Apr 10, 2009 8:58 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Tried It

Same failure as before. Only this time it is on line 60.

I wish I knew Perl…

by mlbnotebook on Apr 11, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

what's the problem?

The 2008 crawlers need to be updated to handle a change in the weather info, and you can grab their spin rate/dir #’s, too.

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 10, 2009 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

R.J. Is Awesome At Helping

All thanks to RJ.

A noob or n00b is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word with teenage society.

a noob could be simply a level 100 running round shouting ‘’WTF DO I GO!?’’ or someone calling someone else a noob and then getting hit with a brick, anyone can call anyone a noob, but normally they are noobs themselves
-robert_d_wilfong

by cwhitman412 on Apr 10, 2009 11:22 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

If he’s pulling straight from the XML file, MLBAM has a pitch-type algorithm that defines pitches.

by xanthan on Apr 10, 2009 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

oh, i have the data from Brooks'

what i’m having trouble with is figure out how to make it show up on the graph. Here’s what i have for Porcello’s movement from yesterday.

I just am having difficulty figuring out how get the different pitches to show up. Am I making sense?

by erik on Apr 10, 2009 12:55 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Let me make sure I understand you. In your plot above, instead of all the pitches being marked as red, you’d like something like red for the fastball and blue for the curveball, right?

Just go to the select data portion and hit “add legend series” name it fastball and all your FB x and y numbers. Then, hit OK. Next, do the same for your curveballs. Hit add, and then all of your x and y numbers for the curve. This will give each entry a separate color and data marker.

by xanthan on Apr 10, 2009 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

victory

thanks RJ, xanthan

Sorry if this is a bit big

by erik on Apr 10, 2009 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Looks good! Also, if you want to move around some of your data markers (ie: bringing your 2-seam markers out “in front” so that they overlay your 4-seam markers) just hit ‘select data source’ again and move the data markers order around by using the up and down arrows under the legend entries box.

by xanthan on Apr 10, 2009 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Am I reading that right?

Is that basically saying his 2-seam, 4-seam, and change all have basically the same break and movement? If so, isn’t that bad?

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness. - Emo Philips

Proud father of Juan Carlos Perez. Think Albert Pujols at second.

by marcello on Apr 10, 2009 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I’m guessing that the pitches that PFX identified at 4-seamers are actually 2-seamers. That’s a lot of horizontal movement for a 4-seam fastball. Also remember that the changeup has a velocity difference, so even if it’s moving in a similar fashion, it’s coming in much slower.

by xanthan on Apr 10, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Porcello throws a sinker

I think Gameday is wrong on a lot of those, as it is a lot of the time. It’s for entertainment purposes, they consider the accuracy to be pretty good, improving, improvable but to be taken with a grain of salt. They want it to be better, and I think you’ll see some continued improvements coming up. Still, especially for lesser known or new pitchers, watch out. The net has been trained on a limited number of pitches and pitchers, it is crazy good on the training set and test sets, but really struggles when (a) they don’t know the guy or (b) have incorrect weightings based on inaccurate or out-dated scouting (Angel Guzman may end up getting corrected, btw).

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 10, 2009 3:14 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Good call on the sinker, makes sense. The neural net stuff is interesting and I wonder how often they update their scouting reports?

by xanthan on Apr 10, 2009 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Answer:

not that often, it’s a gradual process. They got tons of scouting info in 2008, they still get updates sent to them that they use, and they check the blogs that have their own pitch classification methods from time to time, also.

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 10, 2009 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Speed matters.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Apr 10, 2009 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Obviously

I was just under the impression that a good changeup breaks more, vertically, than a fastball.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness. - Emo Philips

Proud father of Juan Carlos Perez. Think Albert Pujols at second.

by marcello on Apr 10, 2009 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

A lot of straight changes

move like sinkers. There are soooo many types of change-ups.

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 10, 2009 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah, you'd think they'd have less backspin.

They’ll still move more vertically, though, because they’re not going as fast, even if they’re “breaking” the same amount.

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Apr 10, 2009 9:37 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

hence flight paths being useful

Since they’re slower they will drop, or so it appears – remember, slower pitch, longer flight, more time for gravity to act. So, backspin induced magnus effects (bime?) may be equal over the spin movement zone (40 ft to 1.417 ft, which is actually the front of the plate) but the flight paths, view from the side, will show more “drop”

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 10, 2009 9:53 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

bime? No.

Tango always pushes folks to talk about what the ball’s doing in the last .15 seconds (or something) of it’s flight, because that’s when the hitter needs to make his decision to swing or not. Any good way to tackle pitches from that perspective?

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Apr 10, 2009 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

late break?

I think Fast has looked at that. Ike Hall has pondered (over email) the impact of the shift in the spin axis over the flight (nothing there, apparently).

by Harry Pavlidis on Apr 10, 2009 11:32 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

awesome stuff, thanks so much

"If Bowden was a general contractor, he'd build houses with nine bedrooms, six garages, no bathrooms, and half a roof."

by DyeLongJustice on Apr 10, 2009 12:07 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Oh excellent

I didn’t know you could get data like that off Brooks Baseball.

by VictorW on Apr 10, 2009 12:20 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Cool graph, RJ. Howell really comes over the top.

by xanthan on Apr 10, 2009 1:31 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

how do you put an excel graph into a fanpost?

for some reason, i’m really dumb and can’t do it.

"If Bowden was a general contractor, he'd build houses with nine bedrooms, six garages, no bathrooms, and half a roof."

by DyeLongJustice on Apr 10, 2009 10:20 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Host On Imageshack, Then Click The Picture Thingy Underneath Title

A noob or n00b is someone that lacks intellegance or common sense, most people think that noob is a word used only in the online gaming world, but in reality it is becoming an ever popular word with teenage society.

a noob could be simply a level 100 running round shouting ‘’WTF DO I GO!?’’ or someone calling someone else a noob and then getting hit with a brick, anyone can call anyone a noob, but normally they are noobs themselves
-robert_d_wilfong

by cwhitman412 on Apr 10, 2009 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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