We have about a month of play finished already so here are the best and worst pitches of the Rays staff sorted by run value with negative being good for the pitcher (run prevention). I only charted those pitches thrown at least 20 times with the contact rate added for show (just look at Garza's slider).
| NAME | # | pitch | rv100 | CONTACT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Price | 43 | SL | -5.44 | 81.0% |
| Jeff Niemann | 38 | CU | -5.35 | 76.9% |
| David Price | 131 | FT | -4.91 | 80.4% |
| Dan Wheeler | 37 | SL | -4.70 | 75.0% |
| Matt Garza | 82 | SL | -4.29 | 52.1% |
| Wade Davis | 77 | FT | -2.90 | 87.9% |
| Jeff Niemann | 142 | FF | -2.87 | 88.9% |
| Rafael Soriano | 35 | FT | -2.62 | 83.3% |
| Andy Sonnanstine | 102 | FC | -2.38 | 89.8% |
| James Shields | 121 | CH | -2.22 | 60.3% |
| Jeff Niemann | 28 | SL | -2.19 | 45.5% |
| Dan Wheeler | 54 | FA | -2.17 | 95.5% |
| Randy Choate | 33 | SL | -2.06 | 46.2% |
| Grant Balfour | 163 | FF | -1.96 | 83.5% |
| Grant Balfour | 22 | SL | -1.88 | 66.7% |
| Lance Cormier | 120 | FC | -1.47 | 93.1% |
| Matt Garza | 25 | CH | -1.46 | 62.5% |
| Wade Davis | 58 | SL | -1.36 | 75.0% |
| Matt Garza | 236 | FF | -1.31 | 88.4% |
| Wade Davis | 284 | FF | -1.05 | 89.3% |
| David Price | 234 | FF | -0.33 | 75.9% |
| Jeff Niemann | 45 | FS | -0.19 | 80.8% |
| Mike Ekstrom | 46 | FT | -0.15 | 100.0% |
| Lance Cormier | 39 | CU | -0.09 | 66.7% |
| Matt Garza | 34 | CU | -0.01 | 81.8% |
| James Shields | 192 | FF | 0.15 | 91.3% |
| David Price | 22 | CH | 0.22 | 100.0% |
| Rafael Soriano | 42 | SL | 0.22 | 78.3% |
| James Shields | 60 | CU | 0.56 | 81.0% |
| James Shields | 94 | FC | 0.69 | 87.2% |
| Rafael Soriano | 95 | FF | 1.06 | 90.0% |
| Jeff Niemann | 112 | FT | 1.34 | 93.8% |
| Matt Garza | 152 | FT | 1.37 | 91.8% |
| David Price | 91 | CU | 1.79 | 90.5% |
| Randy Choate | 86 | FA | 1.98 | 93.3% |
| Wade Davis | 49 | CU | 2.24 | 87.5% |
| Mike Ekstrom | 57 | FF | 2.30 | 90.0% |
| Mike Ekstrom | 24 | SL | 2.70 | 62.5% |
| Jeff Niemann | 23 | FC | 4.07 | 100.0% |
| Wade Davis | 22 | CH | 5.02 | 100.0% |
| Scott Kazmir | 32 | SL | 6.88 | 66.7% |
| James Shields | 68 | FT | 8.22 | 93.5% |
| Andy Sonnanstine | 29 | SL | 8.56 | 83.3% |
Hey! David Price's slider is making a comeback. And somehow I forgot to take Scott Kazmir out but his "new" slider is atrocious when put into play since his SLGCON is at 2.000. But it seems most pitcher's get their whiffs on sliders.
Data from MLBAM. Classifications are my own. Google Doc of table above.
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