2016 MLB thread. THE CUBS HAVE BROKEN THE CURSE! Chicago Cubs are your 2016 World Series champions

Status
Not open for further replies.
Bryce Harper bunted twice tonight.
roll.gif

 
 
I just saw when he bunted with a runner on 2nd (no outs I think?). I know he wanted to at least make a productive out but he is way too good of a baseball player to be doing that. I'm assuming Davey didn't ask him to do it either. Just swing the bat, a deep sac fly prob moves the runner.
 
Who are they? And I trust a veteran reliever to not fold under pressure like Storen did. Money isn't really a thing to the Nats, we have the richest owners in baseball. Soriano is here to pretty much be Drew Storen's John Wettland. I'm not saying Storen will turn into Mariano Rivera, but he needs a mentor who can fully put him in the closer mentality. And none of our young core and their extensions will be affected by this contract because Soriano's will be up before it's time for us to sign players to extensions. This is an "all in" move made by Mike Rizzo and I love it.

I said this 81 pages back. I feel stupid :smh:
 
I just saw when he bunted with a runner on 2nd (no outs I think?). I know he wanted to at least make a productive out but he is way too good of a baseball player to be doing that. I'm assuming Davey didn't ask him to do it either. Just swing the bat, a deep sac fly prob moves the runner.
I think it confused everyone who saw it. Even Mike Krukow pointed out what you just said.
 
Amazing bomb by Pablo what do expect from the guy who hit 2 HRs off Verlander, 3 total in the game in game 1 of the World Series.. Amazing.. Panda Mode On
 
I was at the game last night and was clapping when he bunted.

Damn, Pablo's homerun :wow: , only Barry Bonds hits homeruns there.
 
He went at Bryce's neck :lol: said he could tell his four year old what the situation was and he would have positioned himself better in the OF. He wasn't wrong though.
 
Top 5 Team batting War. (f)


1: Giants 9.8

2: Indians 9.7

3: Rays 8.6

4: Braves 8.1

5: Red Sox 7.9
 
He went at Bryce's neck
laugh.gif
said he could tell his four year old what the situation was and he would have positioned himself better in the OF. He wasn't wrong though.
nope

and bryce just made another outfield blunder....might not cost gio though..we'll see
 
The Ideal Groundball Rate for Hitters, Featuring the Royals.

Is there an ideal ground ball rate for hitters? Should they be thinking about how many grounders they hit? Armed with some spreadsheets and a couple conversations with some Royals’ hitters, let’s see what we can discover.

First off, we can write off a simple answer. There is no correlation between ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio and team runs scored or team weighted runs created. Teams are made up of individuals, and it might be folly to recommend one approach to Billy Butler as you would to Jarrod Dyson. Perhaps that’s partly what Eric Hosmer meant when he told me that you don’t want to “change too much from the natural fluidity of you swing — you got to this level with that swing.”

But we’ve been taught the adage that more fly balls mean more home runs. Billy Butler acknowledged that he’s heard that before. And of course your ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio is strongly (and negatively) correlated to power stats — more fly balls do mean more home runs. And also the relationship between ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio and batting average on balls in play is fairly clear — more grounders mean more hits. The value of the home run outstrips the value of a hit, and that’s why GB/FB ratio is not well correlated to runs, or overall offensive value.

There is one interesting relationship that might provide some insight into this discussion. Put GB/FB ratio up against home-runs-per-fly-ball, and you get a fairly strong, negative relationship.

Remember, this is judging how many home runs leave the park *per* fly ball. So, it’s not just about ‘getting them up to get them out,’ there’s something more going on here. It’s probably why power hitters like Frank Thomas, Mark Reynolds, Jason Giambi and Jose Bautista are multiple entrants at the top of the fly ball leaderboard since 2003. Even if ground balls turn into hits more often, the fly ball serves the slugger well.

So it looks like there might be an ideal ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio… for each individual hitter. We’re back to Hosmer’s quote about each individual swing, with an asterisk. Billy Butler talks about thinking only of “putting the barrel to the ball” when he’s at the plate, but there do seem to be variations on that theme for different types of players. Sluggers get the ball in the air a bit more, and speedsters put it on the ground.

Players do change, and players do search for that unique mix that works for them. Perhaps they were sluggers before but find themselves dwarfed by the sluggers in the big leagues. Perhaps they’d like a few more hits mixed in with their home runs.

Joey Votto talked about leveling his swing plane. Alex Gordon had much of the same revelation, brought on by his early struggles and his demotion in 2010. “Over the last couple of years I’ve tried to cut down on my fly balls and I’ve tried to cut down on my strikeouts,” he said, “because the easiest out in baseball — other than the strikeout — is the lazy fly ball.”

It’s hard to argue with his results. He’s progressively hit more ground balls, and his offense is a career-high 44% better than league average right now. It looks like ground balls (and fewer strikeouts) drove much of his improvement:

Year BB% K% ISO OBP Pull% GB/FB wRC+
2007 6.8% 22.8% 0.164 0.314 41.3% 0.85 87
2008 11.6% 21.0% 0.172 0.351 42.2% 0.66 106
2009 11.1% 22.8% 0.146 0.324 39.8% 1.04 87
2010 12.1% 22.1% 0.140 0.315 43.2% 0.96 85
2011 9.7% 20.1% 0.200 0.376 43.8% 1.03 141
2012 10.1% 19.4% 0.160 0.368 36.4% 1.29 126
2013 5.3% 20.5% 0.189 0.373 36.9% 1.45 144

And the park means something. “In a big stadium like Kaufmann, a lot of fly balls just go to the warning track,” Gordon said. Even a unique hitter struggling to find the best ratio with respect to his own game might have to think about the park he calls home more often. Jed Lowrie mentioned this when he talked about the evolution of his swing in the different organizations and parks he found himself in. You don’t want to change your swing to suit your park too much — what if you get traded — and yet you play half your games there. Home runs are suppressed by 16% with respect to the average park in Kansas City, and yet the White Sox call The Cell home, which augments home runs by 24% over average. Maybe, when Gordon talks about how he “got carried away with hitting home runs” early in his career, maybe he wouldn’t have changed his swing like he did if he played in Chicago.

Can we see the difference starkly? On the left is a swing from 2008, when Gordon had one of his higher pull percentages and lowest ground-ball rates, and HD apparently didn’t exist. And on the right, the first of his four hits from his strong night against the Athletics on the 19th.

700

700


Maybe Alex Gordon has found his own unique ideal ground-ball rate. He’s certainly calmed his pre-swing movement down, and his swing plane looks more level. And you can see that he’s right when he says he’s now more capable of covering the outside corner more now that his swing is more level and he’s not concentrating on pulling the ball. Gordon credits former hitting coach Kevin Seitzer for the advice, but he put in the hard work. He’s no longer “see the ball, hit the ball, try to crush the ball” as he used to be.

There’s one last asterisk here: the pitcher. Hitting coaches talk about hitting the ball where it is. Eric Hosmer called it “playing the situation, whatever it is that at-bat.” Alex Gordon said he is always “thinking about what the pitcher is trying to do.”

But we sort of know what the average pitcher is trying to do. Thanks to Jeff Zimmerman, we know that 61% of all pitches are on the outside half of the plate. 45% of the pitches in the strike zone are in the bottom third of the zone. Butler said he’s always “looking from the knees to the waist because pitchers are taught to get outs at the knees.” There’s Gordon talking about the added plate coverage he has now. These are potentially good arguments for most hitters to consider a more level swing plane across the board.

Even if there is an argument for more ground balls, there isn’t quite an argument that there is one ideal ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio for all hitters. Each has to find their own unique mix. For some, it might take a little time and some tweaks. For others, they’re just naturally able to barrel the ball from day one. But that relationship — between how level your swing is, and the amount of ground balls you produce — looks like a place you might start if you were struggling at the plate. It certainly worked for Alex Gordon.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Andre Ethier is Now Eminently Available.

All winter, there were rumors that the Dodgers were open to trading Andre Ethier. All winter, the Dodgers declared that there was nothing to those rumors, and that they weren’t having second thoughts about the five year, $85 million contract they gave him last June. When spring training rolled around and Cuban import Yasiel Puig became The Hot New Thing, those rumors picked up again, since the Dodgers will need to open up a corner outfield spot for Puig at some point in the not too distant future.

But, LA remained patient and optioned the 22-year-old Puig to Double-A, giving him some experience against professional pitchers without throwing him immediately into the fire. They also gave Ethier a chance to play most everyday, and while they were unlikely to admit it publicly, they likely hoped that he could get off to a strong enough start to re-establish some trade value after his power fell off in the second half last year.

Today, though, manager-of-the-moment Don Mattingly sent a pretty clear signal that he is not Andre Ethier’s biggest fan, and you can probably start the clocking ticking on both of their exits from Dodger Land.


Manager Don Mattingly benched Andre Ethier for the Dodgers’ series finale at Miller Park on Wednesday, saying he did so because he wanted to field a lineup “that’s going to fight and compete the whole day.”

This will be the third time Ethier is out of the lineup on this six-game trip. The Dodgers are off on Thursday.

Asked if he was trying to send a message to Ethier, Mattingly replied, “We’re last place in the National League West. Last year, at this point, we’re playing a lineup that basically has nobody in it that fights and competes and battles you every day for every inch of the field. We talk about it as an organization. We’ve got to find the club with talent that will fight and compete like the club that doesn’t have that talent. If there’s going to be a message sent, it’s going to be over a period of time.”

Mattingly wouldn’t say if Ethier is now a part-time player.

“For me, today, I’m putting out my lineup that I feel is going to be the most competitive and going to compete the hardest,” he said.

Asked if Ethier is no longer a player he automatically writes into the lineup every day, Mattingly said, “Well, he wasn’t today.”

Does Mattingly think Ethier won’t fight?

“I can’t really say that,” he said. “I don’t really want to say that, but we’ve got to compete.”

Scott Van Slyke drew the start over Ethier today, even though a right-handed pitcher is on the mound. Ethier has traditionally gotten his days off against left-handers, as he has struggled against southpaws in his career. This is clearly not a match-up decision, though. Mattingly has basically told the world that he doesn’t think his best line-up against right-handed pitching involves his $85 million left-handed hitting right fielder.

Mattingly doesn’t seem long for this job, with his comments today likely being the final icing on the cake, and most national columnists see him taking the fall for the Dodgers struggles sooner than later. It is possible that Mattingly’s replacement will restore Ethier to the starting line-up. More likely, I think, is that both of them are soon shown the door.

If there’s one thing the Dodgers clearly don’t have any shortage of, it’s money. As challenging as moving Ethier’s contract might seem — he’s hit just .270/.346/.415 over the last calendar year, spanning 619 plate appearances, so this is no longer just a slump — the Dodgers have the financial capability to eat a significant chunk of his contract in order to move him and create a spot in the line-up for Puig. And while Ethier is certainly not worth his full salary, it’s not so far removed from the realm of reason that he couldn’t possibly be traded.

Even over those last 365 days where Ethier has demonstrated marginal power, he’s still put up a 111 wRC+, and both ZIPS and Steamer forecast him to hit at about that level for the rest of the season. Disappointing Andre Ethier is still roughly an average player, maybe even a tick above for this year, though he’s on the wrong side of 30 and will probably be below average before too long.

Given all the money in baseball right now, solid average veterans go for about $10 million per year in free agency. Over the winter, Torii Hunter got 2/26, Adam LaRoche got 2/24, and Ryan Ludwick got 2/15. Ethier fits in pretty well with those guys, though he’s a little younger and has a slightly better track record than the latter two, so his market value might be closer to the high end of that AAV range. Nick Swisher, a better version of the same kind of player, got 4/56 over the winter. Ethier’s not worth that, but he might have gotten something not too different from Swisher’s deal had the Dodgers let him hit the open market this winter.

Spitballing it, I’d say Ethier’s probably “worth” something like 3/36. That means he’s paid something close to fair salary this year ($13.5 million), will be overpaid by a few million next year ($15.5 million), and then starts to be significantly overpaid starting in 2015 ($18 million). The last couple of years ($36.5 million, including the inevitable buyout of the sixth year option) are a total albatross, as Ethier probably won’t even be worth starting at that point in his career, so he’ll either be the world’s most expensive pinch hitter or will be paid a lot of money to do something besides play baseball. But, if the Dodgers offered to just completely cover years four and five, plus pay the buyout on year six, I would imagine they could drum up some interest in Ethier.

At that point, accounting for what has already been paid out in 2013, other teams would be on the hook for $43 million over the next three years, and now the deal is close enough to fair market value that it only takes the Dodgers accepting a mid-level 2013 salary in return to make it an easy swap.

The Royals could offer to swap Jeff Francoeur for Ethier in a one-for-one deal, injecting some life into their offense by replacing their biggest offensive hole. The Mariners could offer up Franklin Gutierrez, who has been displaced in center field by players not made of glass. Or maybe the Rangers would take the first few years of Ethier’s deal in order to move David Murphy back into a fourth outfielder role, using some of the money they didn’t spend over the winter in order to add one more bat to make a World Series run.

The Ethier extension was an overpay the instant it was signed, but the Dodgers financial resources give them the chance to show just how sunk costs work. They’re not getting a good return on that investment, but they have the ability to pay Ethier to play for another team in a few years, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if they took it. Given that there aren’t likely to be too many decent hitters on the market this summer, Ethier might appeal to a few franchises as long the Dodgers agree to cover the last couple years of the contract.

Changes are coming in LA. The manager is almost certainly on the way, and he might have just helped take his unwanted right fielder with him.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellsbury’s Struggles and the Red Sox.

Just a couple of years ago, Jacoby Ellsbury came out of nowhere of have one of the best seasons by a position player in years. He hit .321/.376/.552 (149 wRC+) with 32 home runs while playing center field that impressed both the Gold Glove voters and various fielding metrics. Although Ellsbury had been a first-round draft pick by the Red Sox in 2005 and had been a very good prospect in his minor-league days, it is unlikely many saw 2011 coming. While Ellsbury was amazingly fast — he stole 70 bases in 2009, one of only three players to steal 70 or more in a single season since 2000 — and had good contact skills, he had not shown anything close to that sort of power. In fact, he had never hit double digits in home runs in any major or minor league season prior to 2011.

It would have been unfair to expect Ellsbury to repeat his 2011 performance, but even so, he has been disappointing since then. His 2012 was derailed by an early shoulder injury and he ended up playing only 74 games while hitting just .271/.313/.370 (83 wRC+). Ellsbury is off to an even worse start this year at .242/.307/355 (72 wRC+), and while 212 plate appearances are not many, they are not nothing, at this point, either. The Red Sox are obviously in contention, and are arguably the favorites to win the East at this point. The divisional and playoff races look to be very tight, so contenders have to make every decision count. Figuring out what Ellsbury can offer or if they need to lessen his role is obviously a big decision for them. It is not that Ellsbury has to repeat his 2011 performance — far from it. He does not need to be a superstar for the Red Sox to have a chance. The questions are whether or not Ellsbury is going to keep flat-lining and how long Boston should wait to find out. The Sox are competing even with him hitting horribly now, but that is not something they want to live with if they do not have to do so.

The obvious place to look for influence of small samples on under- or over-performance is BABIP, of course. Ellsbury does have a low BABIP so far this year at .274, especially for fast, left-handed hitter. As Royals fans watching Mike Moustakas this year can tell you, not all low BABIPs are created equally, either, something to which I will return. It is also worth nothing, though, that Ellsbury had a .304 BABIP in 2012, and his line still was poor.

In some ways, Ellsbury might actually better at this plate in 2013 than in 2011. Ellsbury has never walked much, but his walk rate is currently the highest of his career. Ellsbury has always been good at making contact, and his strikeout rate is also the lowest it has been since 2010, and his contact rate is currently at a career high. Low strikeouts and high contact rate correlate pretty closely, as one would expect, and along with walk rate, they gain meaning pretty early relative to other metrics. Plate discipline is not everything, but it is a very big thing, and Ellsbury maintaining and perhaps even improving his approach is a good sign.

Nevertheless, it is clear that not all as well. One of the big culprits is something else that stabilizes pretty quickly: power, or, more specifically in Ellsbury’s case, home run power. Again, I doubt many expected Ellsbury to have another 30 home run season even in the immediate aftermath of 2011. Still, it was a pretty big leap forward for a player in his prime. Just a bit of power combined with Ellsbury’s contact skills could lead to good things, as witnessed in 2011. However, his isolated power the last two seasons has dropped even below his pre-2011 levels (I am excluding his 84 plate appearances from the injury-riddled 2010), to .099 and .093 respectively. In 2012 and 2013, Ellsbury has actually hit doubles and triples on balls in play at a greater rate than he did in his 2007-2009 seasons. The problem has been twofold: a) as mentioned above, he simply has not had as many hits on balls in play the last two years, and b) he is not hitting the ball out of play as much, i.e. home runs.

The home run issue is quite noticeable if one focuses on the differences between 2011 and the last two years. Ellsbury’s rate of home runs on contact has actually lower this year and last than his first two season in the majors, though, so it is not all just an issue of not living up to his monster 2011 season. His home runs per fly ball rate is also way down this year.

The home run issue may connect with the BABIP issue. I hesitate to say much about the impact of injuries, but it might be Ellsbury is still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s shoulder injury. Red Sox manager John Farrell has also mentioned Ellsbury is still working on his timing, and it is not crazy to wonder if the two issues (recovering from a shoulder injury and getting this timing back) are related. If Ellsbury simply is not making good contact as frequently despite more frequent contact, then it would be understandable if his batted balls do not go out of the yard or are more easily fielded than in the past. Ellsbury is currently popping up fly balls at a Moustakas-ian rate. Saying “Ellsbury is not hitting the ball as hard” may be so simple an answer as to be unilluminating, but perhaps given that he has had a shoulder injury in the relatively recent past, not totally uninteresting.

If that is the case, is it good or bad news? I have already gone outside of my comfort zone on injury recovery speculation, so I do not know. The question is what the Red Sox should do. As as been mentioned, the situation is complicated not only by the Red Sox being in contention, but by Ellsbury’s impending free agency. The Red Sox need to put their best team on the field, but the player wants to strut his stuff every day. The team could try and platoon Ellsbury if they have a suitable candidate, but it is not clear that they do.

The issue is not so much Ellsbury’s terrible performance against lefties this year, though. He has been bad overall, and his career platoon split is actually relatively small for a lefty. Ellsbury has made it clear that he likes leading off, although it is not obvious why, with signs pointing to Ellsbury taking off after 2013, the Red Sox need to go out of their way to cater to his desires. It would not make a huge difference, but the Red Sox might want to consider having Shane Victorino lead off against lefties, against whom Victorino is much better.

Hits may start to drop in (go over the wall) for Ellsbury at such a rate that two weeks from now this post and others like it seem like silly, early-season hand wringing. But both Ellsbury and the Red Sox have a lot at stake, and if there is more than just random variance underlying his inability to drive the ball effectively, they will probably want to do something other than just wait him out.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Is Jose Ramirez a Starter or Reliever?

Jose Ramirez‘s live arm was on display against Kevin Gausman this past Friday. The New York Yankees’ minor-leaguer consistently unleashed 94 mph to 95 mph four-seam fastballs against the Bowie Baysox from his low three-quarter arm slot. The pitch touched 97 mph, but Ramirez’s low release point kept it on the same plane on which it was released. It did, however, feature arm-side run.

Ramirez complemented his four seamer with an 81 mph to 84 mph changeup that featured significant vertical drop and slight fade as it neared the plate. The right-hander commanded the pitch well down in the zone and it was his go-to out pitch when he was ahead in the count. But his arm speed slows down noticeably during his delivering when compared to his fastball.

The Baysox were helpless against Ramirez’s one-two punch. The Dominican lasted five innings, struck out seven batters and walked one.

With two above-average offerings, the 22-year-old Yankee minor-leaguer has a strong foundation to become a major league starting pitcher — but there still are several questions he’ll need to answer before his future role becomes clearer.

One concern is inefficiency. Ramirez’s Double-A walk rate is just 5.5% in 24 innings, but his fastball command is poor. Against Bowie, he often worked deep into counts. Scouts who have followed his career noted his pitch counts escalate quickly and he rarely lasts deep into games — though Ramirez may be turning that trend around. In Double-A this season he’s averaged just fewer than 16 pitches per inning, which would land him between the sixth and seventh innings on a full workload.

But to be effective as a starter, he’ll need to do more than throw strikes. He’ll have to throw quality strikes, and those will only come with improved command.

Another issue is his breaking ball. Ramirez throws a “slutter” — a slider with predominately horizontal break. It’s a poor 86 mph to 88 mph pitch that has little present swing-and-miss ability. On two occasions near the end of his start, Ramirez flashed a below-average — but improved — slider with more horizontal tilt, but this shape needs to be far more consistent and his command must improve.

Finally, Ramirez’s delivery has noticeable effort and recoil. While he’s well-proportioned at 6-foot-3 and likely is more than the 190 pounds he’s listed at, Ramirez’s mechanics, along with his other issues, could ultimately push him to the pen. In the bullpen he could be a dangerous high-leverage reliever who can get left-handed hitters out with his changeup.

The Yankees should keep the Dominican as a starter until Ramirez’s issues force him to the bullpen. The rotation will grant him valuable repetitions and opportunities to improve his slider and command. None of the three concerns is insurmountable, but collectively, they’ll likely be too much for him to overcome.
 
On the Not Literally Venomous Patrick Corbin.

The lowest ERA on the Diamondbacks right now belongs to Matt Reynolds. The lowest ERA on the Diamondbacks belonging to a pitcher who’s thrown more innings than a really long baseball game belongs to Patrick Corbin. Monday night, Corbin took the mound in Coors Field with an ERA of 1.52. He came away with an ERA even lower than that, and at present his ERA is the second-lowest in baseball among starters. Only Clayton Kershaw has Corbin beat — Matt Harvey, Shelby Miller, Felix Hernandez, and everyone else is behind him. And Kershaw’s allowed three unearned runs. Corbin has yet to allow his first.

It’s been a brilliant season-opening stretch for a guy who now looks to have been underrated in the past. To pick on Keith Law, here he is calling Corbin a back-end starter, and here he is calling Corbin a No. 4. To pick on us, here’s Corbin as a potential No. 3, and here he is as a potential No. 3 again. Previously, it was thought that Corbin’s ceiling would be that of a mid-rotation starter, perhaps. Already, he’s exceeding that, and I’m not blaming the prospect evaluators. Corbin’s just beating expectations, and that’s worthy of a deeper dig.


In case you’d forgotten, Corbin arrived in Arizona as part of the Dan Haren trade, which we used to think was lopsided in the other direction. He went with Tyler Skaggs, and Corbin was never thought of as a top prospect. There are a few lessons we could learn from this, but we can leave those for another day. Now it’s time to get you familiar with what Patrick Corbin is, today.

Maybe the least interesting baseball article of the week would be “Patrick Corbin isn’t going to sustain his 1.44 ERA.” You know that, because you aren’t a moron. But there’s no other way around it: we have to acknowledge that Corbin is going to allow more runs. So far, in terms of run prevention, Corbin has pitched like an ace. The numbers tell us that won’t keep up. Some numbers even tell us Corbin is the same as he was a year ago. I like to use Mariano Rivera as a baseball stat sanity check. Corbin isn’t going to keep stranding more runners than Mariano Rivera. He isn’t going to keep allowing a lower BABIP than Mariano Rivera. He isn’t going to keep allowing a lower rate of home runs than Mariano Rivera. Corbin isn’t Mariano Rivera, because nobody is, and the fact of the matter is that things are going to get worse, at least on the scoreboard. Yet that doesn’t mean Corbin isn’t good, that doesn’t mean Corbin isn’t improved, and that doesn’t mean Corbin isn’t worth writing about, right here.

Let’s get the basics out of the way. Here are details:

Age
23

Throws
Left-handed

Height
6-foot-2?

Pitches
Four-seamer
Two-seamer
Slider
Change

Last year, Corbin debuted and was fine. This year, he’s either a little bit better, or a lot of bits better, depending on how you interpret the data. Used to be people would talk about Corbin needing to develop a better changeup if he wanted to stick as a starter long-term. Something he could offer to right-handed hitters to keep them off balance. Instead, he’s leaning more heavily on his slider, and though the slider is said to be a pitch with extreme platoon splits, Corbin’s approach is clearly working for him. At least so far, the slider has been an effective offspeed pitch against lefties and righties alike.

Which isn’t to say that Corbin doesn’t have big splits. This year, his strikeout rate against righties is less than half his rate against lefties. But then, his rate against lefties is terrific, and his overall numbers against righties are more than acceptable. A left-handed starter doesn’t have to be outstanding against righties to make it. He just needs to be fine, and Corbin meets that mark.

Now, before we get to more on Corbin’s slider, I’d like to mention a couple other things. Just looking at pure xFIP, you wouldn’t think that 2013 Corbin is markedly different from 2012 Corbin. But we know that’s too simplistic, and this year’s Corbin is throwing about a mile per hour faster, across the board. That doesn’t guarantee a better performance, but it increases a pitcher’s margin of error. Additionally, Corbin’s rate of first-pitch strikes is up from 59% to 71%. That’s the highest first-pitch strike rate in the league this season, and a pitcher getting ahead frees up a variety of options. It puts the hitter on the defensive. Corbin’s been good about achieving something of an elevated position.

But now back to that slider, because that slider is incredible. That slider has made 2013 Patrick Corbin into what he’s been. Corbin threw 34 against the Rockies on Monday, and 15 of their swings missed. Rockies hitters couldn’t say enough about it, and there were reports out of spring training that Corbin was throwing the pitch with more confidence. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but Corbin came into the year believing in his slider as a true weapon, and that’s how things have played out. Looking at a couple images can reveal how Corbin has been finishing his slider better than he did a season ago. Corbin tries to put his sliders in the same places against batters of both handednesses. From Texas Leaguers, we see Corbin’s sliders in 2012 and his sliders in 2013:

700

700


I haven’t yet learned Dave’s little mouse-over trick, but Corbin has been burying the slider in and beyond the corner much more regularly. That suggests improved release-point consistency and improved snap, and in case you’re wondering what the slider actually looks like, hey look, more .gifs, of course there have to be .gifs. From the Monday night slaughter:

700

700

700

700


Lefties have seen the slider 28% of the time, and 38% of the time with Corbin ahead. Righties have seen the slider 19% of the time, but 34% of the time with Corbin ahead. In two-strike counts, Corbin has thrown almost half sliders, and that’s why sliders have led to 40 of Corbin’s 51 strikeouts. Corbin has yet to strike out a single righty with a changeup this season, and it hasn’t mattered. The slider’s been death, and we aren’t through talking about it.

Let us consider some telling slider PITCHf/x information:

2012: 39% sliders thrown in the zone
2013: 24%

2012: 52% sliders swung at
2013: 51%

2012: 55% sliders contacted
2013: 42%

Corbin has moved the slider out of the zone more often, but it hasn’t stopped the hitters from swinging just as much. It’s simply stopped the hitters from hitting it as much. Corbin’s slider has been one of baseball’s premier putaway pitches to this point in time.

Baseball Prospectus offers useful PITCHf/x leaderboards. As you can imagine, lots of individual pitches have been thrown at least 100 times so far in 2013. For example, Ivan Nova has thrown 108 curveballs. Jarrod Parker has thrown 180 changeups. Patrick Corbin has thrown 189 sliders. They’ve generated a whiff/swing rate of just about 58%. That’s the highest rate of any individual pitch so far in baseball, given a 100-pitch minimum. Put another way, through May 20, no regular pitch has been more difficult to hit than Patrick Corbin’s slider, which he uses well against both lefties and righties.

Some of that is because Corbin mostly uses the slider in strikeout situations. He seldom uses it to pick up an early strike. But lefties have whiffed 59% of the time, and righties have whiffed 55% of the time. If you want to know the biggest reason why Patrick Corbin is blossoming right now, it’s because his slider is making hitters make fools of themselves. It’s been a rare slider to dominate opposite-handed hitters.

You can see some similarities between Corbin’s approach and Madison Bumgarner‘s, or Derek Holland‘s. Corbin might still benefit from improving his changeup, but right now there isn’t that need. Right now, he can all but rely on his fastball and slider, because his slider is unlike most others.

Without question, Patrick Corbin is going to start allowing runs more frequently. Without question, some people are going to interpret this as a “fade,” and he’s less often going to look like one of the most untouchable aces in the league. Patrick Corbin, probably, is not going to develop into a classic No. 1. But he’s already developed into what looks like a capable No. 2, and a No. 2 can look like a No. 1 for considerable stretches when he’s at the top of his game. Many of the questions people used to have about Corbin’s changeup have been answered. And as it happens, they’ve been answered by his slider. Corbin’s in possession of a dominant pitch, and a dominant pitch can take a guy a long way.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom