Split Squads, Split Double Header

Updated: Early game bullpens (at bottom)

The Cubs have two games Wednesday, The fun starts with a home game in the afternoon against our good friends, the Oakland Athletics. It starts an hour earlier than recent games - back to 2:00 CDT. Later on, the Cubs also play the Giants, this time on the road.

Dempster gets the ball at HoHoKam and Lieber in Scottsdale.

In the early game, the Cubs will face Joe Blanton and an A's split-squad. Kevin Correia will be backed by the full home squad in the night-cap.

The following charts show Blanton's release points, plate location and spin movement. You'll notice his release point varies on either side of the rubber (or the center of it). That happens within games, and has some interesting patters with pitch type.

First, I'll show you the average pitch by cluster (Fastball, Change, Slider, Curve) and then the full spray chart of each pitch by cluster. Click to zoom, the spray charts are bigger size than the average pitch charts.

Pitch	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	SpinDir	SpinRate
Curve	73.5	4.8362	-8.8738	209.0	998.2
Change	83.7	-5.4772	5.8881	222.8	951.5
Slider	81.2	8.1796	1.5451	141.8	946.5
Fastball	89.6	-3.9058	9.9804	201.3	1327.3

Release Point:



Plate Location:



Spin Movement:



Now the full scatter plots

Release Point:



Plate Location:



Spin Movement:



Here's a quick look at Correia - we'll see him again later this year, most likely, so maybe I'll spend some more time on him then.









Here are the bullpens for the early game, available after Dempster is done. The A's have only posted relievers for their other game of the day.
Cubs early game
Gallagher
Marmol
Walrond
Wood
Wuertz