Cubs and Dodgers - The LA Bullpen

Behind Takashi Saito and Jonathan Broxton, the Dodgers will also have veteran Chan Ho Park, and rookies Cory Wade and Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw, the lefty, made 21 starts for Los Angeles, and fills the gap Hong-Chih Kuo's injury leaves. Joe Beimel will be in the pen with Kershaw, keeping the Dodgers stocked with two lefty relievers, assuming Kershaw isn't needed in Game 4.

Some dude named Greg Maddux is also in the pen, and available to start Game 4. Derek Lowe will probably end up going in a Game 4, on short rest. Game 2 starter Chad Billingsley could return for Game 5 on regular rest. Hiroki Kuroda will pitch Game 3 in Dodger Stadium.

According to mlb.com, Joe Torre was planning on adding one more pitcher (James McDonald or Ramon Troncoso).

With Saito out part of 2008, Broxton got to close games. According to mlb.com, Saito's health remains a question mark, so a closer has not been anointed for the NLDS.

PITCHf/x Analysis

I took a look at Saito and Broxton in May. I'll get to the starters one at a time (see Derek Lowe here) and I'm going to skip Maddux. I don't think he needs a scouting report. Whoever he is.

For an overview of what this PITCHf/x stuff is, see this post. Definitions of key terms/abbreviations are there, too. It happens to be a review of Zambrano's no-hitter. But I digress....

Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw is just 20 years old, and has made just five relief appearances since turning pro, and I doubt he worked much middle relief in high school. Just a hunch. Kershaw did work in relief last time out, after three days rest. He threw only fastballs, four-seamers.

Kershaw features a pretty big curveball, not as big as Ted Lilly's, and a little more 1-to-7 than Lilly's, which is more towards 12-to-6. He relies mostly on a four-seam fastball, which I'm simply labeling FA for now, and including any possible cut or two-seam varieties - but nothing stands out. His third pitch is the change-up, of some variety. It doesn't get much use.

During an August start in Washington, he apparently threw in a few sliders. I'm not sure what that was all about.

cfx	#	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	deg	rpm
CH	102	86.6	4.8	8.4	149.7	1,206.8
CU	410	74.3	-3.4	-7.4	155.6	857.9
FA	1274	95.2	2.4	10.1	166.2	1,411.4
SL	5	84.6	-0.6	3.2	193.6	419.7
	1791	89.9	1.2	6.0	162.9	1,270.2

cfx	#	LHH	RHH	Swing	Whiff	B:CS	ISZ	Paint	Chase	Watch
CH	102	1	101	0.3725	0.1842	3.9	0.3824	0.0490	0.1746	0.3077
CU	410	99	311	0.2927	0.3500	1.9	0.3951	0.0732	0.2137	0.5864
FA	1274	268	1006	0.4584	0.1798	1.9	0.4490	0.1122	0.3148	0.3654
SL	5	2	3	0.6000	0.0000	1.0	0.6000	0.0000	0.5000	0.3333
	1791	370	1421	0.4160	0.2067	1.9	0.4333	0.0994	0.2818	0.4085

Cory Wade

Wade is a curveball thrower, too. He also throws a not so fast fastball, a splitter and possibly some straight changes, too.

cfx	#	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	deg	rpm
CH	9	82.9	-6.9	8.4	220.6	1,289.4
CU	295	75.2	6.4	-6.5	224.1	969.1
FA	562	90.2	-4.3	10.2	202.3	1,427.9
FS	153	82.1	-7.5	5.3	233.6	1,091.7
	1019	84.6	-1.7	4.6	213.5	1,243.4

cfx	#	LHH	RHH	Swing	Whiff	B:CS	ISZ	Paint	Chase	Watch
CH	9	3	6	0.4444	0.2500		0.1111	0.0000	0.3750	0.0000
CU	295	102	193	0.5254	0.2516	2.3	0.4136	0.0915	0.3757	0.2623
FA	562	207	355	0.4359	0.1347	1.1	0.4644	0.1246	0.2691	0.3716
FS	153	100	53	0.5425	0.2892	4.8	0.2353	0.1111	0.4615	0.1944
	1019	412	607	0.4779	0.1992	1.6	0.4122	0.1119	0.3389	0.3238

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I'll have more later ... check back