Ryan Rowland-Smith in the past has typically thrown his change up about 16 to 20% of the time. You might remember the change up as a pitch that is important to getting opposite-handed hitters out. Well last night, Rowland-Smith faced 25 of them which not coincidentally was also the number of batters that he faced all game. Every hitter Hyphen faced batted from the right side.
That's an extraordinary tough situation for Ryan as his best weapon is his curve ball and breaking balls are much more beneficial against same-handed hitters. Right-handed hitters get a better perspective on a lefty's curve and it forced Ryan into relying on his fastball and change to work through the Tiger lineup. That's usually a recipe for scariness because Rowland-Smith's fastball is pretty pedestrian. He usually commands it fairly well, but it isn't all that fast and it doesn't have all that much movement so it's not a strikeout or ground ball pitch.
Hyphen threw 53 fast balls and they were predictably manhandled. Nearly half went for balls which was probably a good thing because the of the ones put into play (ten in total), six were hit for a line drive. Just twice did a hitter swing and miss on a fastball and just once did a hitter hit one on the ground (notwithstanding an additional one via a bunt). Without having to worry about the curve, the Tigers sat on Rowland's fast ball and waited to feast on it. His change up was going to have to be effective to get through the game.
And effective it was. Roughly doubling the frequency that he normally threw it, Rowland-Smith tossed 30 change ups and it was nearly an unqualified success. 18 of the 30 were in the strike zone and he nabbed four swinging strikes. Only six were put into play and half of those were on the ground. Two others resulted in pop ups and just one went for a line drive. Below is a plot of his location on change ups thrown last night.
The scales are not exactly proportional and the regulation strike zone roughly correlates to the middle two boxes. Hyphen kept hitters honest with change ups to the outer half, mostly resulting in fouls. When he did go inside with the change, he had success getting strikes up in the zone and getting ground balls down in the zone. That up and in grouping is what made this outing for Ryan.
2 recs | 15 comments
I love starter analysis like this.
Just curious, I always thought that breaking balls didn’t really show a platoon split. Do you know of any articles that go into further detail on this [i.e. I always had the impression that certain breaking balls e.g. 12-6 curves were equally effective against same and opposite handed hitters, is this not the case?]
EnglishMariner - April 18, 2010
I'm pretty sure sliders are much more effective on same-handed hitters
Randy Johnson’s slider + LHB use to be an automatic strikeout.
I could see the 12-6 curve having less of a platoon split. Usually it seems like the platoon split shows itself when the breaking pitches are curving down and away from a batter such as the problems Beltre had with breaking pitches that went down and away. Only a same handed pitcher can throw a breaking pitch that breaks away from the batter (Am I missing anything, I’m in the process of pulling an all-nighter so I definitely could be?).
Edgar for Pres - April 18, 2010
Also is the following correct?
Offspeed pitches that break in towards the hands are easier to hit because they “speed up” a hitter’s swing.
Hard pitches that break in towards the hands are harder to hit because they reach a hitter faster than expected.
Edgar for Pres - April 18, 2010
You'll also notice the bomb he gave up to Ordonez was on some kind of curve, just sayin'.
BRKLN M'S - April 18, 2010
Much appreciated analysis as well, and the chart is fantastic
If that’s custom work, it’s one of the cleanest I’ve seen anywhere.
Kermit. - April 18, 2010
Here you are
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/05/platoon_splits.php
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/03/deconstructing_1.php
Sliders are extreme. Curveballs are much less so.
Jeff Sullivan - April 18, 2010
I think the more 12-6y the curveball is the less of a platoon split it will have
vivaelpujols - April 18, 2010
For sure
Jeff Sullivan - April 18, 2010
Hadn't seen those but they are very interesting articles
Why do cutters not show more of a platoon split?
Edgar for Pres - April 18, 2010
So, I draw from that a conclusion that RR-S had a gameplan of sorts that was effective
That’s pretty cool. I tend to like this more after all the Felix fastball establishing woes – but whatever leads you to a greater appreciation of intelligent pitching, I say.
cwel87 - April 18, 2010
There's a good reason he got a standing ovation when he came out...
That was a pretty solid group of hitters and he took care of them pretty well. A few ks, stayed around the zone, and made a couple great hitters look foolish on that change.
lailaihei - April 18, 2010 via mobile
Great work.
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back.
JBell523 - April 18, 2010
Excellent analysis Matthew.
Articles like these are why LL is the best baseball site out here on the interwebs. Thank you.
wyte_lightning - April 18, 2010
I wish someone could make sure RRS reads this.
I know, I know, sounds like dopey fanboy wishspeak. But doesn’t he have a blog or a Twitter account or something? I figure that players like reading praise of the things they did right, no?
esoteric - April 18, 2010
Was there any evidence of his New Pitch™, the cutter, being effective?
Doesn’t seems like he threw it at all. Unless the the three sliders pitchfx identified are mislabeled. It would be interesting to see if he has dropped that pitch at the same time as Vargas has picked it up and drawn accolades.
stredarts - April 18, 2010
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