Cubs @ Giants III - Kevin Correia f/x

The Cubs get a bit of break tonight, as Kevin Correia won't present the challenge that Matt Cain presented, and he won't be much of a warm-up for Tim Lincecum, either.

I've looked Correia in the past, (scroll to bottom, past Joe Blanton), but it reflects only home games. AT&T park has its own unique look in PFX data, shifted to the catcher's right in terms of spin movement. Adding in road games, and 2008 games, draws a clearer picture.

cfx	L	R	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	deg	rpm	B:CS	corner%	Sw%	Whiff%	SwOZ%	TaIZ%	HR%	NKS	G:AO
CH	170	51	83.0	-2.6	3.6	209	581	4.8	12.22	44.80	27.27	29.41	14.74	0.9	0.564	1.5
CU	17	3	74.4	9.8	-6.7	235	1,257	3.3	10.00	35.00	14.29	28.57	37.50	5.0	1.333	0.3
FA	466	520	89.9	-0.4	9.4	182	1,249	1.7	12.88	41.99	13.29	27.09	31.18	0.6	0.467	0.8
SL	72	315	84.6	3.3	2.4	149	571	2.0	13.18	52.20	24.75	39.02	25.75	0.0	0.360	1.0
	725	889	87.5	0.3	6.7	178	995	2.0	12.83	44.73	18.42	30.19	28.13	0.6	0.458	0.9

His stuff isn't flashy, but it is pretty effective. However, he really doesn't have a secondary pitch to lefties that he can reliably throw for strikes. As a result, he throws an awful lot of heaters to lefties when he falls behind. BTW, the change-up may not be a strike all the time, but it is a tough pitch and yields a lot of grounders.

		#	CU	FA	CH	SL
L	first	182	1.6	73.6	19.2	5.5
L	ahead	170	8.2	44.1	32.4	15.3
L	behind	174	0.0	86.8	9.2	4.0
L	even	156	0.0	48.7	35.3	16.0
L	full	43	0.0	69.8	20.9	9.3
R	first	252	0.4	65.1	2.8	31.7
R	ahead	276	0.4	42.8	9.4	47.5
R	behind	193	0.5	72.5	2.6	24.4
R	even	134	0.0	56.0	9.7	34.3
R	full	34	0.0	67.6	0.0	32.4

Like most guys, he's slider to same side (RHH) and change-up to the opposite (LHH).

Flight paths (remember, click images to enlarge, and don't forget about those sortable tables):



Looks like there's some variance in those release points - e.g. he's not in the same place with each pitch, and at 55ft. out. Here's a look at release points from the catcher's view.



That's measured in feet, so there's some space between those dots. How much of it is noise and how much of it is real is another question.

Up next, and ignoring that question above, a look at Jason Marquis v Matt Cain. Tim Lincecum is on tap, too.