Zack and Lack f/x

by Harry Pavlidis on Sep 5, 2009 11:12 PM EDT in Pitch f/x Goodies

Zack Greinke and John Lackey matched-up in a pitcher's duel that did not disappoint. Although the game took 11 innings to decide, leaving both starters out of the decision, they racked up a combined 17 innings of 2 run ball. Not bad.

They got to, in effect, the same result in two different ways. Lackey got through an extra inning, while throwing 20 less pitches than Greinke did in his eight frame outing. That's a reflection of Greinke's high strikeout total and Lackey's high ground ball rate.

Conveniently, the two aces throw the same set of five pitches, and both with plenty of power. Makes for a nice single-game PITCHf/x comparison. Numbers after the jump.

Greinke threw harder
Lackey threw more strikes
Greinke gave up a few hard hit balls
Lackey gave up a ton of grounders
There are more similarities than differences in their stuff (spin-wise)

	Type	#	vs LHH	vs RHH	MPH	PFX_X	PFX_Z	DEG	RPM
Greinke	Change-up	15	14	1	88.3	-10.7	5.2	244.9	2,361.1
Lackey	Change-up	1	1	0	88.0	-10.3	9.7	226.7	2,700.5
Greinke	Curveball	20	11	9	76.9	3.7	-3.2	49.3	853.3
Lackey	Curveball	17	16	1	80.3	2.4	-3.8	31.1	815.7
Greinke	Fastball	66	41	25	96.1	-6.7	11.5	210.1	2,828.1
Lackey	Fastball	59	34	25	93.7	-6.3	10.4	211.2	2,520.8
Greinke	Sinker	8	5	3	94.4	-10.6	8.9	230.0	2,895.0
Lackey	Sinker	10	7	3	93.1	-10.2	7.6	232.9	2,609.9
Greinke	Slider	16	11	5	89.5	1.8	2.1	135.6	638.8
Lackey	Slider	18	1	17	84.7	1.2	1.5	137.3	420.3

	#	LHH	RHH
Greinke	125	82	43
Lackey	105	59	46

	Swing	Whiff	Chase	Watch
Greinke	0.536	0.254	0.379	0.271
Lackey	0.467	0.143	0.277	0.379

	rv100	rv100E
Greinke	-0.88	1.02
Lackey	-3.56	-0.61

	B:CS	IWZ
Greinke	3.1	0.472
Lackey	1.3	0.552

	SLGCON	GB%	FB%	PU%	LD%	HR/FL%
Greinke	0.455	18%	41%	5%	36%	0%
Lackey	0.269	46%	35%	4%	15%	0%

If you have questions about any of these stats, just drop me a line in the comments.

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Comments

Would be great to see a quick outline of each lineup.

Is it really fair to compare what Greinke does against an actual MLB lineup to what another pitcher does against the Royals?

I used to work with an old man that told me. Son, every workplace has a dumbass, if you don't have one where you work, then I'm afraid you're it.

by Warden11 on Sep 6, 2009 12:45 AM EDT reply actions

Greinke was amazing in that game. He worked out of a 1st-and-3rd with no out jam in the 8th. He allowed one run in that situation but that was mainly due to the error that led the inning off. His team lets him down so much. I’m an Angels fan and I realize how much better Greinke was today. Poor guy. When he threw one of his final pitches to Morales, he clocked it about 97. That’s pretty crazy.

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by FlyByKnight on Sep 6, 2009 1:03 AM EDT reply actions