Scott Kazmir Throws Slider(!)
by R.J. Anderson on Apr 9, 2009 5:00 AM EDT
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PrintScott Kazmir's slider has dominated this site's topic list for most of the last six months. Naturally, his first start was highly anticipated for reasons far beyond simply his pitch usage, but it certainly added to the intrigue.
First things first, Kazmir only induced two swinging strikes. I'm not overly concerned, but that's not Kazmir. Another thing that's not Kazmir, 30 called strikes. 30. That's ~2% swinging strikes, 27% called strikes. In 2008, Kazmir had nearly 12% swinging strikes and only 15% called strikes, similar numbers have followed Kaz throughout his pro career. It's only one start, so don't read much into it, but Kazmir was locating well enough for an insane called strike percentage. As for fouls, about 15%, less than his usual 20%.
Pitch usage; about 18% change-ups, 17% sliders, and 65% fastballs, a step up from last year's fastball heavy diet. Kazmir's fastball topped out at 94 miles per hour, and averaged 91. Not sure if that's a conscious effort for better control or not, but he was getting quite a bit of fastballs for called strikes on the outside corner to righties.
Okay, let's get to the charts.
Strike zone:
Can you say generous outside corner versus righties? Give credit to Dioner Navarro and Kazmir, they picked up on the wide corner early and went to it often, usually to begin an at-bat versus a right-handed hitter. To be fair, I expected a lot more outside of the normalized strikezone box. Now let's focus on the break on his pitches.
Pretty sure a few of those sliders are actually fastballs categorized incorrectly for whatever reason. His fastball moved, his change-up looked like his fastball, and his slider got in to righties. Kazmir's stuff looked the best that it has in a while tonight. The only issue was finishing hitters. He's definitely able to get ahead of them and keep getting ahead of them.
Without making any big claims on one start, tonight could mark the beginning of a fun season.
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from the Boston Globe:
“Kazmir’s final inning demonstrated his grit. Kevin Youkilis and Rocco Baldelli ripped consecutive one-out singles. "
I’ve never seen guys get jammed worse than those two. Those ripped singles were lucky bloops. Kennedy made a good point saying how Kaz didnt look done at all, and those guys were jammed and just got lucky.
BOHICA
I know it's early
but that was a huge effort by Kaz last night.
The first win of a season is always psychologically a big one, nonetheless v the Red Sox
However
I know I only physically watched a little of the game, but it seemed like most of his sliders were missing the zone pretty badly, way down and in against righties. Obviously using the pitch is a good first step, but if he can’t locate it, he’ll lose confidence in it and stop using it as much.
Vogt early, Vogt often.
first inning
he seemed to have excellent control of it. Went to talk to Hickey after the first and the usage went down, and when he used it it was wild.
To make up for it his shaky command of the fastball in the first two innings seemed to stabalize and the movement picked up.
Sometimes we,even here, can
overcook stats
Had he got 15 swinging strikes, had perfect control of his slider, K’d 6, but gave up 3 HR and 5 ER would you have been happier?
I think the fact that he threw it often and it moved the way it was supposed to is a positive enough step to be encouraged with.
Keeping in mind that he hasn’t really thrown this pitch in nearly a year, it might take a couple more starts for him to get the location back, so throwing them a little off and well into the dirt isn’t a concern to me. If he were going all Rick Ankiel on the other hand and blasting it to the backstop, that might be more of a problem. But I think he’s only going to get stronger as the season goes on and it won’t be too long till we see a game with him going 7 innings with only 100 pitches.
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You might want to jump providers, doesn't look like Knology has any desire whatsoever to pick up those remaining games.
Check out my blog on web development at kericr.wordpress.com
Lester
Watching the game, it just didn’t seem he could hit that outside corner the way Kaz was. Sutcliffe was killing the ump.
IMO the ump was pretty bad.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." -Earl Weaver
by PriceMultiCyYoungs on Apr 9, 2009 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions
Most positive thing to me.
He was sawing guys off. Jamming them and causing them to ground out (rarely) or pop out in the infield. He had 4 IF flies (including the foul out to Pena) and one of the two line-drives he surrendered was a line out to first. Throw in an IF single on a ground-ball and his BIP data looks very, very good. If he gets his stuff working where he’s getting those strikes swinging look out.
He threw 1 or23 changeups that looked nasty.
I have never seen that pitch from him befor last night.
A few things that really excited me...
1)He threw a few sliders that looked like his sliders of old. He still has some work to do on those, but his slider was better last night then most of last season.
2)His injury last season helped him develop a nice changeup…and several times it was nasty. He even made Pedroia look bad on one.
3)Overlooked by many because of his change up and slider, he used his fastball differently then he EVER has before. A majority of his fastballs were on the outside 1/3 of the plate. I have been preaching this for years, but this is going to be how Kaz extends his outings. Kaz typically ptches inside with his FB all game, and hitters either take it for a ball, a strike, or foul it off. They dont put it in play. When you pitch to the outer 1/3 you will have more balls put in play. Kaz’s pitch count was up, but that was because he was walking guys.
I am really excited to see Kaz’s development throughout the season.
2)His injury last season helped him develop a nice changeup…and several times it was nasty. He even made Pedroia look bad on one.
I got giddy thinking the same thing. That could be another good pitch for him in the future. He also didn’t seem to have the feel for the slider, and I think that it was in large part due to the cold. Unlike the curve, the slider is a feel pitch that depends a lot on your grip and tension, and in the cold it can be hard to get that grip. The amazing thing is to look at the flight patterns of his pitches: deadly combos.
I know
exactly what pitch to Pedroia you’re talking about and I whistled when he threw that thing because Dustin went way, way out after that thing and still looked like he missed it by a mile.
That was one dirty, dirty pitch.
by BrokeBearMountain on Apr 9, 2009 10:44 AM EDT up reply actions
Things that i noted
1) Kaz was not getting the grip for his slider after the first inning and went to talk to hickey, at which point hickey took the glove but gave it back. his sliders broke a little more inward sometimes.
2) That changeup became devastating, not as good as johan santana but still devastating.
3) his walks were not all that bad, he was trying to get hitters to chase and unfortunately not many of the red sux hitters do dat
by CB,DT,LB,OR DE is what we need on Apr 9, 2009 10:58 AM EDT reply actions
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