Silver Lining: Kazmir

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 17, 2008 12:56 PM EDT

So I just looked at the pitchf/x data and did a little jig. Of those 111 pitches Scott Kazmir threw, 38 of them were sliders.

38! That's 34% of his pitches. Kaz threw 9.6% of his total pitches for sliders during the regular season, heck only 19% of his pitches in 2007 were sliders. The horizontal break was -1.43, last season Kazmir's slider only broke 0.81. The vertical breaks are nearly identical. Holy crap! Of those 38 sliders it appears that five, or half of Kazmir's total swinging strikes, were produced.

Whoever convinced Kazmir to throw his bendy thing should be sworn in as a knight. Kazmir might be back.

Reference:

Kalk's 2007 player card

Brooks Baseball

Fangraphs

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Comments

Do you have a gif of him throwing a slider?

I suffer for baseball so damn much.

by .Taylor on Oct 17, 2008 1:00 PM EDT reply actions

No.

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 17, 2008 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Wow way to rip off my fan-shot

You know you could have just bumped it instead of stealing all the credit Anderson.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

by Sandy Kazmir on Oct 17, 2008 1:02 PM EDT reply actions

I didn't even see it dude.

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 17, 2008 1:03 PM EDT up reply actions

:o

Brad Ziegler had a scoreless inning streak. Brad Ziegler had not met BJ Upton.

by P Brady on Oct 17, 2008 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Sorry to sound pissy

I should know that only the cool kid’s read fanshots

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

by Sandy Kazmir on Oct 17, 2008 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions

I apologize for not checking ahead of time.

I know Kazmir is your boy.

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 17, 2008 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Nobody reads fanshots

Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes, and Gabe Gross coming through in the ninth

by JMB on Oct 17, 2008 1:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Change your sig

Gabe Gross did not come through in the ninth

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

by Sandy Kazmir on Oct 17, 2008 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Gabe Gross could have jumped for that fucking LD.

I suffer for baseball so damn much.

by .Taylor on Oct 17, 2008 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions

wouldn't have made a difference.

by walkoffwalk on Oct 17, 2008 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions

sure it would

people would bitch that he tried to be a hero and fucked up instead of just playing it safe!

See, that;’s different!

by joeybw on Oct 17, 2008 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions

it took the national media to get kazmir to throw strikes...whatever, i'll take it.

by walkoffwalk on Oct 17, 2008 1:05 PM EDT reply actions

err, sliders; not strikes

by walkoffwalk on Oct 17, 2008 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions

You should have been looking at this earlier when I pointed out that Kaz had thrown 11 sliders in 2 at-bats in the 6th.

And I almost did a fanpost on this, but I couldn’t find PitchFX data from a game last year to draw a comparison from.

by kericr on Oct 17, 2008 1:23 PM EDT reply actions

Kaz actually threw all fastballs to David Ortiz. They looked like Sliders because they were coming so fast that they were ricocheting off his atmospheric pressure.

by kericr on Oct 17, 2008 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions

maddon press conference now

http://player.play.it/player/player.html?id=62&onestat=wfan

by walkoffwalk on Oct 17, 2008 1:30 PM EDT reply actions

he said balfour is his middle inning closer and he'd have him pitch to papi again...which most of us didn't have as big of a problem with as much as wheeler to the assembly line of lefties

by walkoffwalk on Oct 17, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed and thanks for the link

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

by Sandy Kazmir on Oct 17, 2008 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Great game. I didn't see the first 6 innings cause my high school had a homecoming game last night.

And I remember there being a BDale grad on here, so: We won 20-13 vs. Leto on a goal line stand.

Remember when we were kids and we mixed sodas together and called them "suicides"? It was OK though, because Dr. Pepper was always there.

by bdalebs on Oct 17, 2008 1:37 PM EDT reply actions

Great game indeed.

Putting aside my fan bias, I really enjoyed watching that game. The baseball fan inside me danced with joy.

Then the Rays fan in me punched him in the face and I slept for 8 hours last night.

by kericr on Oct 17, 2008 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I slept 10.

Too much emotional roller coaster in the past two weeks for me.

Remember when we were kids and we mixed sodas together and called them "suicides"? It was OK though, because Dr. Pepper was always there.

by bdalebs on Oct 17, 2008 2:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Anyway, glad to see Kaz getting it back (hopefully)

Just hope we can get him another chance to pitch.

Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes, and Gabe Gross coming through in the ninth

by JMB on Oct 17, 2008 1:38 PM EDT reply actions

If that awful thing which I wont even mention doesnt matter

He probably gets game 1 of the WS since Shields will be on 3 days rest so it is nice to have some confidence back in him

Hamels @ Kazmir
Myers @ Shields
Garza @ Moyer
Sonny @ Blanton

i like it

by joeybw on Oct 17, 2008 2:10 PM EDT up reply actions

doesnt happen*****

by joeybw on Oct 17, 2008 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd take this

Rays 2009 Slogan: "Come back with your shield or on it"

by PriceMultiCyYoungs on Oct 17, 2008 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions

where can i sign?

by walkoffwalk on Oct 17, 2008 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions

and if Maddon or Manuel dont get cute

which Manuel(with Hamels) and probably Maddon also

Next 3

Shields @ Hamels (or maybe Kaz gets the start again)
Myers @ Kazmir
Moyer @ Garza

if we do advance, I would be shocked to see all these match ups. Depends which Kaz shows up, if it is last night’s Kazmir then I like every single playoff match up for us

by joeybw on Oct 17, 2008 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions