It's no secret that after his biomechanical evaluation and consultation with Rick Peterson that we've seen a much improved Scott Kazmir. Yesterday, R.J. looked at Scott Kazmir's pre/post disabled list swinging strike percentage, strikeout percentage and walk rate. A few questions were raised in R.J.'s thread about pitch selection and pitch effectiveness.
First, a look at results by month...
|
|
GS |
IP |
ERA |
FIP |
|
April |
5 |
26.2 |
5.4 |
4.78 |
|
May |
4 |
19 |
10.9 |
6.72 |
|
June |
1 |
5 |
3.6 |
4.29 |
|
July |
5 |
30.1 |
4.45 |
4.54 |
|
August |
4 |
24 |
6 |
4.25 |
Keep in mind each month in itself is a small sample size, and June is an extremely small sample size as Kaz made just one start. However, it is important to note that the start was post DL, and we can start to see some improvement as soon as he came back. You'll also notice Kaz is averaging about 6 innings a start since returning which is nearly an inning better than before.
|
Pitch Selection |
FB% |
SL% |
CH% |
|
April |
61.9 |
20.8 |
17.3 |
|
May |
67.4 |
25.7 |
6.9 |
|
June |
57.6 |
19.6 |
22.8 |
|
July |
58.3 |
24.2 |
17.4 |
|
August |
67.2 |
18.1 |
14.7 |
There's no real noticeable pattern in pitch selection. Again, remember that June was just one start so the change up number is inflated. The one thing that Kazmir seems to be doing since his return is rolling with the best pitch at that time.
|
Pitch Value |
FB |
SL |
CH |
|
April |
-2.2 |
-0.2 |
0.6 |
|
May |
-7.8 |
-4.8 |
1.1 |
|
June |
-1.1 |
1.5 |
0.3 |
|
July |
-0.8 |
2.6 |
-1.4 |
|
August |
2.4 |
-1.9 |
-1.2 |
In July his best pitch was his slider and we saw a good numbers of them in that month. In August his slider has not been as good as we've seen less of them. Good news is his fastball has been the best it has been all season and he's throwing it most of the time. Obviously something was very wrong with Kazmir in May. He had a 10.9 ERA/6.72 FIP and his fastball and slider both sucked; bad. His change up was his best pitch, however, he threw it the least amount of times.
We're always hearing Kazmir talk about "feel" and it seems that now-a-days he's just going with what feels good at that time. Going into the home stretch of the season, how Scott Kazmir pitches with be one of the more interesting and important storylines regardless of place in the standings.