In order to see how Jake gets his strikes I decided to graph only called strikes or swinging strikes, no called balls or fouled balls.
Blue Circle = Called Strike Fastball
Blue Triangle = Called Strike Breaking Ball
Orange Circle= Swinging Strike Fastball
Orange Triangle = Swinging Strike Breaking Ball
There’s a lot of interesting stuff here. The first thing that jumps out at me is the high number of swing and miss breaking balls low and away. Definitely a great pitch to throw when ahead in the count because the hitter has to defend the strike zone and I’m sure Jake’s slider looks like it’s going to catch the corner before it just dives away.
Even with a good fastball Jake has to spot it on the corners to be effective. Notice how all the fastballs are at the edges, where it’s difficult to hit or the hitter just takes it and hopes it’s called a ball. Any fastballs thrown in the middle of the zone were hit and don’t show up on this chart.
I see a lot of breaking pitches in the heart of the plate taken for strikes. That has to be a sign of a hitter looking for a fastball and just not being able to pull the trigger.
I hope no one complained about Jake getting squeezed because he definitely got some calls tonight. I didn’t include balls on this chart but I did look at them and trust me, he didn’t throw any that should have been called strikes. Very favorable umpiring for Jake tonight.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Sumit Bhardwaj // May 1, 2007 at 12:43 am
Watching Jake pitch is, usually, the highlight of my day. Thanks much for putting this post. Couple of suggestions/requests:
i) Can you please put the identiy of the author in each post?
ii) Any plans to have a RSS feed for this blog?
Thanks,
Sumit
P.S. - It’s really great to have a blog devoted to Padres pitchcing. Then again, I will take a 1-0 game over 7-6 slugfest any day.
2 Sumit Bhardwaj // May 1, 2007 at 12:45 am
I spoke too soon. Couple of minutes after my first comment, I noticed the link to the RSS feed on the upper left corner.
Sorry,
Sumit
3 Daniel // May 1, 2007 at 8:00 am
Great analysis as usual. Not that Jake was getting bad calls, but I think almost more important for judging the umpire is the consistency of calls, not the accuracy. You mislabeled the orange triangle a called strike breaking ball, should be swinging strike I assume.
4 Anthony // May 1, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Thanks guys for the suggestions and for spotting the error. This blog is still a work in progress, I hope to add more features and content soon.
5 Ducksnorts » Friday Links (4 May 07) // May 4, 2007 at 8:16 am
[…] Watch. Here are two of my favorites from this week: Anatomy of an at bat: Kevin Kouzmanoff and Jake Peavy strike chart. As always, good food for […]
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