Release Points
Dave · November 20, 2005 at 1:35 pm · Filed Under Mariners
If you haven’t read Lookout Landing today, go now. Jeff Sullivan’s been doing some really cool stuff on plotting release points to find variability in pitchers deliveries. He started with Felix, and today knocked out Joel Pineiro. Seriously, go read it now.
Jeff’s the man. Everyone should be thrilled that he’s writing about the Mariners.
Comments
18 Responses to “Release Points”
edit: if you have a problem with us, email us. Don’t hijack threads.
Thanks for the link Dave, that was pretty interesting. The caveat about having a consistently bad release point being worse than an incosistent but sometimes good release point was important. I guess for scouting purposes, it might be good to identify players who are failing because they have a consistently bad release point. If you can then correct their release point, you might have something.
I believe that my comment responded directly to the thread.
It didn’t. And we’re not going to hash out your personal problem with us in the comments. Really. Email us, and we’ll be glad to talk to you about your concerns.
Wow. Great stuff. It’s easy for folks who don’t revel in this kind of statistical analysis to point and laugh at what floats our collective boat. But any tool that allows me to have an EVEN GREATER appreciation for the wonder that is Felix, has completely justified its existence.
Amazing what a bunch of motivation and an awesome use of MS Paint can get you. Love to see this fledgeling form of analysis get a chance to develop.
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Is it too late for Jeff to be pitching coach?
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Okay, but what does this mean?
Joel, 4/15: 12.7
Joel, 5/24: 4.5
Joel, 9/22: 12.5
4/15: 5.2 IP, 5R, 7H, 2 HR, 4 BB, 5K
5/24: 5.1 IP, 1R, 5H, 0 HR, 4 BB, 3K
9/22: 7.2 IP, 7R 10 H, 1 HR, 1 BB, 8K
Do all pitchers do better in games where they have consistent release points? It would seem logical to say that they do, but we don’t know that.
If that’s the case, we’d certainly be justified in saying that part of Joel’s trouble is inconsistent release. In that 9/22 game he got rocked but play that over and there’s a good chance that’s his best outing all year, and he had relatively crappy release.
We don’t know yet.
[This is not the place for attacking other people or sites. Or defending them, sorry.]
When you miss the point, you really miss the point.
So, is it better to have a pitcher with a consistently bad release point or an inconsistently good release point?
I’m inclined to say inconsistently good. It’s easier to fix, and you stand a better chance of having sustained success in the meantime.
I agree. If I’m really good at throwing a pitch that hitters can absolutely destroy, that’s not terribly valuable.
This was great work. While Derek’s right that we don’t really know what it means or how to use it, it’s almost certainly valuable information. Thanks for going to all that effort to construct it.