Erik Bedard Hurt, Had Lost Velocity

Erik Bedard is back on the DL thanks to his balky shoulder. Taking a look at Bedard's recent starts, conveniently taking place in Seattle, you can see a loss of velocity since his latest return from the disabled list.

Blue marks are speed at release, pink are speed at the plate. The red dotted line marks Bedard's first 2009 DL stint. All games shown are from Safeco Park in 2009. Some comments after the jump, but this chart pretty much tells the story.

There also looked to be less back-spin on his fastball, resulting in less "vertical spin movement" or "rise". I wasn't lucky enough to find many comps (pitchers who pitched, in this case, on 7/7, 7/12 and 7/25 with Bedard), only Chris Jakubauskas who threw on th 7th and 25th, as well as two other home games in between. Jakubauskas, a reliever shows no sign of change in velocity, so it is hard to attribute Bedard's issue to a park effect. Same thing for vertical movement, but not as clear due to the small sample.