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David Price Uses His Third Pitch

David Price is an enigma. Today he flashed two styles that contrast themselves nicely. Through the first four innings, Price walked four and struck out only two. Of the 73 pitches thrown, only three resulted in whiffs. A total of two non-fastball/slider pitches were thrown, and while the scoreboard looked pretty, it hardly told the entire story.

Then Price threw the fifth and sixth and oh my goodness. Three strikeouts and a walk over the next seven outs recorded. Price would generate four additional swinging strikes and looked a lot better while pitching efficiently. All told Price threw 96 pitches, making his ~7% swinging strike rate rather unimpressive. His tRA for the game sits at 5.16. I wouldn't worry about that too much since the walks are the only blemish on his record today.

The results were nice, if not sustainable. Not many pitchers are going to walk nearly a batter an inning as a starter and only allow a single run. The encouraging thing is the last three innings. Let's look at those 23 pitches in a few different lights.

Star-divide

First up, movement.

Price1_medium

You can easily spot some pitch clusters. The grouping around the origin represents the sliders thrown. Slightly below you see Price's curveball, one of the two he threw today. The rest of the pitches are fastballs and ... gasp ... change-ups.  You can spot how many Price threw on this next graph:

Price2_medium

The x-axis is the velocity of the pitch, and the y-axis is the amount of vertical movement. That means the single dot below the x-axis is Price's curve. The pitches around the 82-87 mark and below ~5 are Price's sliders. The pitches in the top right are his fastballs, and those five pitches around 80-85, ~6+, those, those my friends, are his change-ups. He threw a ton over those last 23 pitches and saw success with them. The results of those change-ups:

Pop-up

Ball

Swinging strike

Fly out

Ball

Price3_medium

Now let's compare the horizontal movement of the pitches to their velocity.  Again, the curveball is the furthest point to the left, the fastballs are on the far right, the sliders are low and in the middle, and those beautiful change-ups are up and to the left/middle. The changes share some of the common ground with fastballs, but are well spaced themselves. They do show consistently enough movement, both vertically and horizontally, to cause batters to think fastball until they realize the pitch is going a lot slower than previously hoped.  How much slower?

82.5

81.5

82

84.6

82.4

Price's fastball sat about 10 MPH higher, so there's a nice separation there.  I don't think Price is going to start throwing change-ups and curves and magically lower his pitch count to 90 per 10 innings or something insane like that. Whoever or whatever got to him after the fourth inning set him into berserk mode and we saw flashes of brilliance. Hopefully Price noticed and takes this game plan into his next start, embracing the idea of throwing his third/fourth pitches whenever he needs to, instead of simply the third time through.

2 recs  |  Comment 22 comments |

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OT: RIP BILLY MAYS

FROM ON ON, JUNE 28TH IS OFFICIALLY KNOWN AS CAPS-LOCK DAY, IN HONOR OF THE MAN WHO LIVED THE DREAM OF SPEAKING IN CAPS LOCK HIS WHOLE LIFE.

I could be wrong though

by staplemaniac on Jun 28, 2009 5:47 PM EDT reply actions   2 recs

THIS POST GIVES ME HOPE THAT DAVID PRICE WILL FILL HIS POTENTIAL.

REC’D

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

by P Brady on Jun 28, 2009 5:47 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

BILLY MAYS HERE TO INTRODUCE TO YOU

THE WAY DAVID PRICE SHOULD PITCH! FASCINATING RESULTS OUT OF THE YOUNG KID AND ONLY FOR THE LOW PRICE OF A COUPLE MILLION DOLLARS YOU CAN HAVE YOURS!

"Doesn't Manny Ramirez look like the monster from Predator??" - Will Farrell as Harry Carey

by Gone Phishing on Jun 28, 2009 6:08 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

CHEER FOR THE RAYS WITHIN THE NEXT 10 MINUTES AND WE’LL ALSO SEND YOU TONS OF POTENTIAL AND AN OFFENSE LEADING THE MAJORS IN RUNS SCORED.

I could be wrong though

by staplemaniac on Jun 28, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

JUST LIKE MATT GARZA

THE CHANGE DOESN’T NEED TO BE FEATURED OR DOMINATING, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE THERE TO KEEP THE HITTERS OFF BALANCE. IN THE FIFTH AND THE SIXTH PRICE WAS ABSOLUTELY LIGHTS OUT

www.draysbay.com

by Tommy Rancel on Jun 28, 2009 6:12 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

THIS MAY BE THE WORST IDEA SINCE RALLY CAPS.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jun 28, 2009 9:24 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

HOW ABOUT GDT PART 2S?

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jun 28, 2009 10:25 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I REMEMBER SOME GOOD COME FROM BEHIND WINS LAST YEAR

WITH THE CUNNING USE OF GDT PART 2’S. LATELY WE HAVEN’T NEEDED THEM, BUT I WOULD NOT BE OPPOSED TO BRINGING THEM BACK LATER IN THE YEAR IF THE TEAM GOES THROUGH A SLIDE. MIGHT BE THE SLUMPBUSTER WE NEED.

WE’RE ALL IN AGREEMENT THAT THE DRAYSBAY GDT HAS A MAJOR EFFECT ON THE PLAY ON THE FIELD, RIGHT? JUST CHECKING…

RIP BILLY MAYS. NEVER BOUGHT ANYTHING FROM YOU BUT DAMMIT I MIGHT JUST HAVE TO NOW.

Regressing to the mean streets of St. Pete

by stpetelawyer on Jun 28, 2009 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

IT'S NOT SO MUCH THAT WE HAVEN'T NEEDED THEM, BUT APPARENTLY PEOPLE THINK THEY'RE BAD LUCK NOW.

BUT YEAH AS OF LATE FOR A SHORT WHILE NOW GDTS HAVEN’T BEEN GETTING PAST THE 700 COMMENT MARK.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jun 29, 2009 12:48 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

in the paper today

they stated that Maddon told Navi to call more off speed stuff which I believe concided with what you were talking about here.

by JRays on Jun 29, 2009 8:46 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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