Your New Closer: Rafael Soriano

by RZ on Dec 10, 2009 4:45 PM EST

The Rays just added a much needed flame thrower to the bullpen after two straight years having one of the lowest average fastball velocities for relievers. Rafael Soriano is a power pitcher bringing a well located (more on that later) low-mid 90s fastball that he can throw as a two-seamer as well. His primary offspeed pitch is his slider which is a little slurvey coming in around the low-80s and decent movement separation from the fastball. Soriano rarely throws a changeup with only seven tracked by MLB Gameday. But this season Soriano added a cutter which has a little more cut from his fastball, and a little better outcomes with (SSS).

So here are some basic pitch movement numbers for Soriano's three pitches.

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Pit	Select%	MPH	HMOV	VMOV	spindir	spinrate
FF	60.9%	93.4	-4.6	9.2	206	2162
SL	23.4%	83.2	3.0	2.2	126	760
FC	15.2%	91.8	-0.5	8.5	183	1732
CH	0.6%	81.0	-1.4	4.6	193	972

Some movement visuals of his pitches.

From The Rays Party

Although I can't separate the two fastballs by clustering yet, we can see that Soriano clearly throws a two seam fastball. That should make Hickey's job a whole lot easier.

Now for spin axis vs. velocity chart.

From The Rays Party

The fastball/slider velocity separation is a little slower than average even though the movement is very-very similar to the average slider.

And some basic stats for each pitch.

Pit	rv100	Whiff	IWZ	Swing	OSWING	Take	LD	GB	FB	PU	SLGCON
FF	-0.97731874	12.0%	50.9%	46.7%	27.9%	53.4%	16.1%	30.1%	37.6%	11.8%	.742
SL	-1.21163701	16.4%	49.1%	49.5%	35.7%	50.5%	21.8%	30.9%	43.6%	1.8%	.491
FC	-3.41846154	12.6%	52.2%	47.8%	36.8%	51.7%	15.4%	23.1%	50.0%	11.5%	.346
CH	1.74857143	0.0%	28.6%	14.3%	0.0%	85.7%

Small sample size but the cutter produces some really excellent results compared to the fastball which can get beat up at times with that high SLGCON(slugging on contact or TB/BIP). Soriano seems to get hitters to swing outside the zone at his pitcher for an above average rate, more specifically the slider. The MLB average for OSWING for a slider was 30.8%. Soriano has almost five percentage points more. We can also see that Soriano is a flyball pitcher, getting a decent amount of infield flyballs on the fastball and cutter.

Remember when I said Soriano had well-located fastballs? I believe it is a huge reason for his great splits against both left-handed and right-handed hitters.

I	Split	PA	HR	BB	SO	SO/BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip	tOPS+
	vs RHB as RH	718	15	51	226	4.43	.168	.236	.284	.520	.228	72
	vs LHB as RH	619	20	53	139	2.62	.235	.303	.404	.707	.278	133

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/10/2009.

Well we can see that command visually through pitch f/x.

From The Rays Party

Not exactly Mariano Rivera, but this is very good. You can watch this in action in this short clip from MLB.com.

Update:I didn't know Andy Hellickson also did one already but I was working on my database all afternoon. I have more numbers yet he has the better visual.

This post was written by a member of the DRaysBay community and does not necessarily express the views or opinions of DRaysBay staff.

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Comments

Since that other thread is full

Can someone explain to me how we “signed” soriano if he already accepted arb, and was reportedly in interest with us?

Why do you kill threads????

by 4QB on Dec 10, 2009 4:49 PM EST reply actions

Arbitration isn't until next year I believe

My Home

by RZ on Dec 10, 2009 4:51 PM EST up reply actions

He accepted with the braves correct

and we had to trade for him?

Why do you kill threads????

by 4QB on Dec 10, 2009 4:53 PM EST up reply actions

You're allowed to negotiate with the player up until the arbitration case date.

by R.J. Anderson on Dec 10, 2009 5:19 PM EST up reply actions

So technically we resigned him after we traded for him

correct.

Why do you kill threads????

by 4QB on Dec 10, 2009 5:39 PM EST up reply actions

RZ > AH

I'm a writer.

by Andy Hellicksonstine on Dec 10, 2009 5:09 PM EST reply actions

Keep this up RZ, I think this is marvelous

You may want to not that you didn’t flip the sign on the rv100 so lower numbers indicate better pitches. I adore those whiff rates. I hope he stays in one piece.

I'm a writer.

by Andy Hellicksonstine on Dec 10, 2009 5:14 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks

My Home

by RZ on Dec 10, 2009 8:11 PM EST up reply actions

As far his Whiff goes

Soriano has the best Whiff percentage for a fastball against right-handed hitters(with at least 300 of these pitches).

My Home

by RZ on Dec 10, 2009 10:07 PM EST up reply actions

Good stuff RZ

Regarding his pitch classification, he’s throwing a 2 seam and 4 seam fastball. His clusters are actually some of the most defined in terms of v-mov, h-mov and velocity in terms of fastballs among pitchers.

His cutter is amazing also. It’s an extreme fly ball pitch but he throws enough strikes and gets enough whiffs, as well as a lot of weak contact, so that it’s a pretty great pitch.

by vivaelpujols on Dec 11, 2009 10:16 PM EST reply actions