Live Chat With Harry About Pitch F/X: Friday at 1pm EDT

by Sky Kalkman on May 29, 2009 10:54 AM EDT

Bumped: Yup, the chat's today. Get pumped and spread the word.

Do you want to understand pitch f/x graphs better? Do you want to make your own? Do you want to know how reliable the data is and what cool information we can get from it down the road? If you have any interest at all in Pitch f/x or the pitcher-hitter matchup (i.e. do you like baseball?) then join Harry Pavlidis on Friday at 1pm EDT for a live chat.

Chat window is after the jump -- I suggest submitting your email address right now to receive a pre-chat reminder email. To get your questions at the front of the queue, show up 5-10 minutes early. Yes, there will be polls. You can suggest topics now in the comments.

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=d4425a72e0" mce_href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=d4425a72e0" &gt;Harry Talks Pitch f/x&lt;/a&gt;

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A Topic

Links or some words of wisdom on correcting GameDay’s errors with identifying pitches. What spin types usually mean what?

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by Zach Sanders on May 26, 2009 5:43 PM EDT reply actions

Normalizing pz to batter's height

Assume player is 4 and 2 in measurements and ball at 3.7 Should be a strike
but the standard pitch F/x strike zone puts it at high out of zone

To adjust the ball I use the equation: pz + (((3.5 – sz_top)+(1.5 -sz_bot))/2)
pz = vertical ball position
sz_top is top of batter’s stike zone
sz_bot is bottom of batter’s strike zone

so for the above example:

3.7 + (((3.5 – 4))/2)
3.7 + (((-0.5)(-0.5))/2)
3.7 + (-1/2)
3.2 is the new pz position – strike

Can you discuss this or how you normalize for batter’s height?

by Jeff Zimmerman on May 26, 2009 6:50 PM EDT reply actions

Park corrections, park corrections, park corrections

And I wish I could be there. Stupid work, always getting in the way of my fun.

by Dan Turkenkopf on May 26, 2009 7:12 PM EDT reply actions

I second this.

I will be in Arlington taking in a double-header, so I will be unable to attend as well.

Texas Rangers Prospects: Joseph Wieland and Matt Thompson - TexasLeaguers.com

by NoNameOnCard on May 26, 2009 7:46 PM EDT up reply actions

Pitcher splits from the windup and stretch

Do you have pitcher splits for the windup vs the stretch? How much velocity (and even movement) does the average MLB pitcher lose from the windup vs the stretch?

Taking a glance at 2007 and 2008, the average pitcher is about a .730 – .740 OPS pitcher with the bases empty and a .770 – .780 OPS pitcher with men on, a .040 OPS difference. The K/BB ratio drops from about 2.32 – 2.35 to 1.69 – 1.7 from men on to bases empty. A little noise in that data with most relievers pitching exclusively from the stretch.

Some pitchers, however, perform significantly worse from the stretch, like Javier Vazquez, whose K/BB ratio drops from 4.18 to 2.53 and his OPS against rises over .080 points. Other pitchers, like Jair Jurrjens and Daisuke Matsuzaka actually improve their K/BB ratio and OPS against. Sample size can be an issue on these two, but the increased K/BB is less fluky than the OPS.

Do Vazquez’s pitches suffer more than average from the stretch? Do pitches like Jurrjens and Daisuke actually throw better stuff from the stretch?

by VictorW on May 27, 2009 11:41 AM EDT reply actions

I am also very interested in this

I actually downloaded all of Vasquez’s starts to excel, but I couldn’t figure out how show when the pitcher is pitching from the stretch, without doing it manually.

St. Louis Cardinals... defying win expectancy since 2008

by vivaelpujols on May 29, 2009 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions