The Cubs finished off their 9th straight win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, going back to last season. The offense scored 26 runs in the last two games as the team hit and walked its way through the Buc's staff.
The Mets finish up their series against the Phillies tonight. They take on the Cubs at Wrigley Monday and Tuesday. The Cubs will send Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly against John Maine and Nelson Figueroa. I'll cover Maine later.
Figueroa is a soft-tossing righty, and is not your run-of-the-mill big leaguer. First off, he's a graduate of Brandeis University. This baseball factory has cranked out a total of one big league player, including Nelson Figueroa. And it figures, he's not even Jewish.
Nelson will turn 34 next month. He played in the Mexican league in 2007, and then the Taiwan league that September. He ended up being the MVP of their championship series, winning three starts in a seven game series.
The Brooklyn native last pitched in the majors in 2004, for the Pirates. He missed 2005 rehabbing a torn rotator cuff, but played a bit for New Orleans in AAA in 2006.
Here's his stuff, in PITCHf/x. First, his spin movement graph. Pitch ID's are mine (hence "CFX"). Click to enlarge the images. Fangraphs lists a change up, slower than what I've picked-up, which looks more like a sinker to me.
First, what he throws, speed and spin movement (inches). In Strike Zone ("ISZ") and corner - just a few inches from the edge of the plate, too.
| CFX | mph | pfx_x | pfx_z | ISZ% | corner% |
| FA | 86.8 | -8.0 | 10.3 | 43.10 | 18.97 |
| CH | 85.2 | -6.7 | 6.9 | 43.86 | 14.04 |
| CU | 72.6 | 7.7 | -2.5 | 41.38 | 13.79 |
| SL | 79.9 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 37.50 | 10.00 |
Basic results - Balls, Called Strikes, Swinging Strikes, Foul, In Play, Homers, Hit batters
| CFX | # | B | CS | SS | F | X | HR | HBP | Swings |
| FA | 58 | 19 | 16 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 23 |
| CH | 57 | 17 | 16 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| CU | 29 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| SL | 40 | 16 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
Same thing, in percentages
| CFX | % | B | CS | SS | F | X | HR | HBP |
| FA | 31.5% | 32.8% | 27.6% | 6.9% | 19.0% | 12.1% | 1.7% | 0.0% |
| CH | 31.0% | 29.8% | 28.1% | 10.5% | 12.3% | 19.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| CU | 15.8% | 48.3% | 6.9% | 3.4% | 13.8% | 27.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| SL | 21.7% | 40.0% | 22.5% | 15.0% | 12.5% | 10.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Swing percentage is here, along with whiff rate, ball/called strike ratio. And, the last two columns, swings out of the zone and takes in the zone (AKA "fools").
| CFX | Swing% (Sw/#) | Whiff% (SS/Sw) | B:CS | SwOOZ% | TaISZ% |
| FA | 39.66 | 17.39 | 1.2 | 31.82 | 25.00 |
| CH | 42.11 | 25.00 | 1.1 | 50.00 | 39.39 |
| CU | 44.83 | 7.69 | 7.0 | 23.08 | 12.50 |
| SL | 37.50 | 40.00 | 1.8 | 28.57 | 31.58 |
The "change" and slider appear to be his most effective pitches. He likely depends on location and pitch selection, because I don't think he can beat anyone on stuff alone.
0 comments:
Post a Comment