Silva’s pitch distribution so far

DMZ · April 19, 2009 at 11:44 am · Filed Under Mariners 

From the Times:

It has been noted throughout the blogosphere that Silva has thrown roughly 85 percent fastballs this year. That is not a surprise. It realIy shouldn’t be, because he’s a sinkerball specialist and a sinker is a variation of the fastball. At least, that’s how it gets measured. As a fastball.

I don’t know who’s claiming he throws 85% straight fastballs. But it’s identified/measured/whatever as a “sinker”.

See:
April 8th 23 fastballs, 61 sinkers.
April 14 41 fastballs, 37 sinkers

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5 Responses to “Silva’s pitch distribution so far”

  1. milquetoast on April 19th, 2009 11:57 am

    I think Geoff is referring to the blog post here from April 8, 2009 titled “Game Three Thoughts”:

    I only have one thought, actually – of the 98 pitches Silva threw tonight, 84 of them were “fastballs”. Nothing like predictability to go along with below average velocity. That’s a fantastic game plan.

  2. DMZ on April 19th, 2009 12:01 pm

    Okay, sooooo… then it’s a fastball variant and we are or are not supposed to identify as such? I’m confused what the ask is here.

    Also, it’s always handy to link to the thing you’re disputing, but I guess the Times has one of those nearly-a-black-hole SEO policies.

  3. HarryP09 on April 19th, 2009 12:52 pm

    He may be referring to a couple of Lookout Landing game recaps here and here.

  4. milquetoast on April 19th, 2009 2:36 pm

    I think Geoff had the same reaction I did when I read that post. The post complains that Silva threw 84 fastballs out of 98 pitches (~85% fastballs), and that this is too predictable especially considering his low velocity.

    And this is true, but that it is a bit misleading because of the 84 “fastballs”, some were regular fastballs and some were sinkers. If he threw 84 regular fastballs, that is more predictable than if he threw half sinkers and half regular fastballs.

    Not that I’m defending Silva, I can’t stand him. But the post Dave made here does seem to suggest that Silva threw 85% straight fastballs, whether he meant to or not. If that post linked to the same link at Brooksbaseball that you made, I think it would’ve been interpreted differently.

  5. Kunkoh on April 19th, 2009 4:23 pm

    If his FB & whatever else he “throws” have the exact same velocity and break, aren’t they for all intents and purposes the same thing?

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