Comments on: Andy Pettitte: Metronome

By: Switzlebeegen

Switzlebeegen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:52:57 +0000

As a Yankee fan, I watched just about every start Pettitte made this year – and the slider is still most definitely there. His cutter is usually around 85-86 MPH, the slider is in the 82-83 range. He also gets a fair amount of strikeouts on the slider down and in to RHB, and the cutter up and in has been money – lots of weakly hit FB.

By: opisgod

opisgod — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:49:34 +0000

http://brooksbaseball.net/pfx/index.php?month=10&day=11&year=2009&game=gid_2009_10_11_nyamlb_minmlb_1%2F&pitchSel=120485.xml&prevGame=gid_2009_10_11_nyamlb_minmlb_1%2F&prevDate=1011

By: opisgod

opisgod — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:37:52 +0000

I manage to watch a Pettitte game every now and then, there is definitely 2 offspeed pitches in the low/mid 80′s. You see a cluster of 82 MPH and 86 MPH, the slider is still there.

By: thehemogoblin

thehemogoblin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:25:10 +0000

My guess would be that as his velocity has gone down, the velocity difference between his slider and his cutter has gone down as well. He’s probably still throwing both pitches, it’s just gumming up the Pitch f/x.

By: Eno Sarris

Eno Sarris — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:40:57 +0000

Edited after a little classification confusion. It is sort of interesting that one system has him eschewing the slider, and another using the slider even more. With the velocity difference between his slider and cutter being somewhat small according to one system, it must be the cutter that is messing this up.

One system has him using an 89 MPH fastball 57% of the time, an 84 MPH cutter 20% of the time, an 83 MPH slider 0.1% of the time, and a 75 MPH curveball 13% of the time. The other has him using an 89 MPH fastball 45%, an 82 MPH slider 18% of the time, an 87 MPH cutter 16% of the time, and a 75 MPH curveball 9.3% of the time.

Pitch classification is a bit of a fly in the Pitch f/x ointment.

By: Will C

Will C — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:31:40 +0000

I think you meant curveball at 74 MPH not cutter.

By: Tom B

Tom B — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:39:46 +0000

don’t forget that mike mussina won 20 games last year using the “slow-slower-slowest” method.