Price's Speeding Two-Seamer

by RZ on Dec 16, 2010 8:13 AM EST

David Price's best pitch is the fastball, being able to reach back and hit triple digits when he has the chance. His two-seam fastball has been a bit of a project this season, having introduced it to his Major League repertoire halfway into the 2009 season. I looked at his pitch selection earlier in the year and noted that his improved pitching may have been the result of adding a two-seamer. Price kept using his two-seamer for the 2010 season until July, when he abruptly ended its usage. After six starts, Price reintroduced it. Except this time, it was a different pitch.

I divided the year into three periods: April 9th to June 26th (15 starts) is the OLD phase, July 2th to August 4th (6 starts) as the BETA phase, and August 9th to September 29th (10 starts) as the NEW phase. Here is a chart of his two-seam usage for the 2010 regular season.

And a more comprehensive table of his pitch usage during the three phases.

	numpit	FAST	FF	FT	CH	SL	CU	FT of Fast
Old	1597	72.1%	53.5%	18.6%	2.9%	7.6%	17.3%	25.8%
Beta	666	74.8%	74.3%	0.5%	8.0%	2.7%	14.6%	0.6%
New	1059	77.7%	48.3%	29.5%	5.4%	3.0%	13.9%	37.9%

David Price threw more two-seam fastballs at the expense of his breaking pitches. This may be because his two-seam was better than it was earlier in the season. Here is the mph and break of the pitch.

	MPH	Break
Old	89.3	6.11
New	94.9	5.92

A five mph average increase is astonishing. Although the pitch f/x break numbers are park-biased, it appears the pitch didn't lose much of its sinking action. So did the increase in speed get better results?

	rv100	rv	wOBAc	Strike	Whiff	Plate	Swing	InPlay	LD	GB	FB	BABIP	ISO
Old	-1.72	- 5.12	.274	0.636	0.091	0.461	0.455	0.229	.235	.426	.324	.227	.126
New	-1.42	-4.42	.299	0.692	0.087	0.497	0.554	0.228	.183	.465	.338	.232	.191

A marginal difference in my view, although I have to give the whole small sample size disclaimer. The batted ball data suggest it improved the groundball rate just a little bit. But even with a lower line drive rate, the pitch was hit for more power by opposing hitters.

It is difficult to tell if it was a better pitch with the added velocity due to the small sample sizes. One stat that I believe is a good sign regardless of results is that in the new phase, Price actually threw the two-seamer to left-handed hitters, something that Price did not do in the old phase.

For more reading on David Price's pitch selection, here is an excellent article by Mike Fast.

Data from MLBAM. Pitch classifications by author

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Comments

I find this fascinating...great stuff RZ.

I had no idea Price swapped out his two-seamer for a new one partway through the season. My concern would be that it doesn’t provide a velocity difference between that and his four-seam, but considering the results seem to be similar, maybe the difference in movement is enough to make up for that.

I love Casey Fossum. Now try and take me seriously.

by Steve Slowinski on Dec 16, 2010 8:39 AM EST reply actions

How do you do your rv?

Hell yeah it is.
Any amount of points can be scored week to week. well, besides 1 point. Any number is as likely to be reached as another, since there’s only one of each number, each has the same chance to be hit. IT’s how the syetemof averages works.
by waltermercier on Sep 21, 2010 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions

by Andy Hellicksonstine on Dec 16, 2010 9:04 AM EST reply actions