Royal Tomko

Updated:
Here's how the Cubs line-up today

Soriano (lf)
Patterson (2b)
Hoffpauir (1b)
Ward (dh)
Murton (rf)
Soto (c)
Cintron (3b)
Pie (cf)
A. Blanco (ss)

Via Press Pass and BCB, today's pitchers

Royals
Brett Tomko
Julio Pimentel
Yasuhiko Yabuta
Leo Nunez
Ron Mahay

Cubs
Ryan Dempster
Kerry Wood
Neal Cotts
Carmen Pignatiello
Kevin Hart
Carlos Marmol

We miss facing Hideo Nomo by one day. Dang it.

Brett Tomko Refresher

Tomko should be a familiar face. Drafted in the 2nd round in 1995 by the Reds, he quickly moved up and started 79 games between 1997 and 1999. He's also played for the Cardinals, Giants, Padres (twice) and Dodgers, all after the Reds sent him to Seattle in the Ken Griffey deal.

What's he throwing these days?

I picked out a couple home games from July with the Dodgers for this exercise. It's another take on a standard chart. This PFX chart shows spin related movement and speed.

The vertical axis is vertical movement related to spin, not gravity.

Horizontal movement due to spin is shown along the x-axis.

This is from the catcher's perspective, and the values -15 thru 15 are inches. These type of charts show how many inches the ball moves due to spin and the stitches hitting the air, not gravity or trajectory - things like arm angle and "downward" plane are not in this sauce.

Click to zoom, and you can see the MPH inside the bubbles:



For a righty like Tomko, this chart tells me a few things - we've got a low/mid 90s fastball with cut and "rise", a change up that's 10mph slower and cuts and drops a bit more. He also throws a slow curve that breaks in on lefty hitters, and drops.

In the middle, he might have another fastball and a slider.

Leo Nunez

Sure, why not? I have 250-something pitches from KC last year. Fastball, Change-up, Slider. Remember, this is Spring Training for me, too. Charts are experimental.



I say it's a slider down there, but not a curve - not enough 12-to-6 drop - note the > 0 minimum on the y axis.