Updated Starting Pitcher Reports
Update Two Bullpen Reports Part 1Complete
The Baltimore Orioles visit the Cubs for a three game set beginning Tuesday. As expected, Brian Roberts will indeed play in Wrigley Field this year.
The Orioles bring 13 pitchers to town, including starters Daniel Cabrera and Garrett Olson. They worked this weekend and aren't scheduled pitch while in Chicago.
That leaves three starters and eight relievers.
Starter W-L ERA IP K BB
Jeremy Guthrie 3-7 3.51 102.2 68 30
Brian Burres 6-5 5.24 80.2 39 27
Radhames Liz 1-0 6.27 18.2 14 9
Reliever S HLD ERA K BB
George Sherrill 25 0 3.21 32 18
Jim Johnson 1 11 1.11 22 16
Chad Bradford 0 11 2.49 10 6
Matt Albers 0 6 2.77 25 21
Jamie Walker 0 6 5.06 17 7
Dennis Sarfate 0 1 3.06 35 25
Lance Cormier 0 0 2.08 17 13
Ryan Bukvich 0 0 13.50 0 2
Record and Schedule for Interleague Play (June 13 - June 29)
v PIT @ HOU @ MIL @ CHC @ WAS
2-1 3-0 1-2
The Orioles went 2-1 in May against the Nationals, in Camden Yards. The Nats, their "local rival" are their only non-Central Division opponent from the National League. The Central leading Cubs are candidates to stick the Orioles with a .500 record against the division.
Here's the
PITCHf/x on the eleven pitchers listed above. Some of these ID's are first pass, some second. Some third. See if you can guess which.
These images are all spin movement in inches. Negative values on the x-axis means movement to the cather's left, or away from a left-handed hitter. Vertical movement has gravity removed. A positive number doesn't actually mean rising, it drops less (due to backspin) than you'd expect. Unless your Chad Bradford, in which case everything is upside down and confusing.
Jeremy Guthrie shows his best command with his curve and two-seamer, but the change and slider are his go-to pitches for a swinging strike (against lefties and righties, respectively). Overall, his command and ground-out rates are around average, but the consist quality across all five pitches is impressive. That ability to throw many pitches well may have something to do with the lack of power hitters show against him. Not to mention his average fastball his 95 mph, which is the first pitch 2 times out of 3.
Brian Burres has the same set of pitches as Guthrie, but throws them left-handed, and without the impressive velocity. Lefties get a steady diet of sliders, mixing in a curveball or a four-seamer on just 1 of 4 pitches. His change-up and curveball are more than half his pitches against righties, and he throws about an equal amount of sliders and fastballs to them. This is not a guy who will speed up your bat. He usually throws something offspeed on an 0-0 count, but will actually throw a fastball if the mood to get ahead of a hitter strikes him.
Radhames Liz throws about as hard as Guthrie does, but he doesn't make good use of his secondary pitches. Relying mostly on fastballs, his command of his change-up is poor while his slider (curve? slurve?) isn't bad. He fails to trick hitters, with less than 1/4 pitches out of the zone getting chased (league average is almost 1/3). He gets hit pretty hard, too, with a non K SLG of .622 (league is .503). The curveball is the exception, sitting pretty at .167, his only NKS below .600.
Closer
George Sherrill was acquired with Adam Jones in the Erik Bedard trade. Sherrill has proven to be a valuable asset, filling the closers role with 25 saves, and it's only June 24. Sherrill works righties with a lot of fastballs, plus a change-up and slider. The change-up is shelved against lefties, and the slider gets a lot more use. The slider is his best pitch, he throws it for more strikes than most guys, and he doesn't make a lot of mistakes with it. It works nicely off his four-seamer, which can touch 95 and is consistently thrown for strikes.
Jamie Walker is a junk-ball lefty, who throws more sliders than any other pitch, and in every situation. It is a nice pitch, he shows good command and can hit the corners with a high frequency. He also commands his fastball well, and his change-up. The change is used in place of the slider against righties, and with similar effect. The fastball has to hit the corners, because it gets hit very hard. Unfortunately for the Orioles, Walker does miss over the plate too often, with nearly 3 of 100 four-seamers thrown being hit for a round-tripper. BTW, I'm not too sure of the F2/F4 split, they may all be four-seam.
Ryan Bukvich just debuted as an Oriole a few days ago, but he pitched for the White Sox in 2007. Again, questionable ID's shown in the chart, the cutter is really the four-seam, and the pitch labeled below as a four-seam is actually a two-seam fastball. The change-up, I believe, is a splitter. Lefties and Righties get a different mix, sliders and four-seamers to righties, change-ups and two-seamers to lefties. Bukvich has serious command issues, and the only pitch remotely effective is the split finger (labeled a change, "CH", below). Despite throwing 95 mph, hitters don't seem overpowered. On the plus side, he isn't actually hit all that hard, and usually gets more grounders than flyballs.
This is a good one, the right-handed, submarining, Moneyball subject,
Chad Bradford. I'm going with Mike Fast's judgment, four-seam, screwball and change-up. Supposedly a circle-change, but the four-seamer could be a two-seam fastball, and the screwball a curve. Or a slider. Or neither. If this chart looks funny, it is. He's upside down, his knuckles will scrape the mound as he delivers the pitch. He gets tons of ground balls, and pounds the strike zone with the fastball. The "screwball" is very nasty on righties, while the change-up fools lefties, getting chased more than half the time when it is out of the zone.
Lance Cormier is on his third stop of a five year career in the big leagues. Baltimore is the first in the AL. His primary weapon is a legitimate cutter, breaking in on lefties, which is more than six inches over from where a fastball would normally spin itself. 2 of 3 pitches to right-handed hitters are cutters. Lefties see a mix of them all (the change-up is a rarity, just 2 in 250). Cormier gets his share of grounders, and only has one impressive pitch, the curveball. The cutter, by virtue of its relative novelty, can also be effective. He his stricken by a tendency to fall behind 0-1, mostly due to the movement on the cutter. Since he pitches to contact, it isn't a real killer. When ahead, he'll go to the curve.
Dennis Sarfate is big righty from Queens. He was drafted by the Rangers in '99, but went to ASU instead. He was drafted two years later by the Brewers, and got a September call-up in 2006. After a stop in Houston, Sarfate is in his first season in the AL. Dennis looks like he comes straight over the top, with a good hard fastball with "rise", a slider which, isn't a great pitch, and a curveball. The curve may look impressive on spin movement alone, but hitters tend to ignore it, with an absurdly low 28.6% swing rate. On top of that, the whiff rate is something more typical of a fastball (12.5%). Sarfate doesn't have great control, but, if he has it on his fastball, he's probably tough. It is fast, with lots of backspin, and sports a very impressive (for a heater) 22.7% whiff rate.
Houston native Matt Albers was drafted by the Astros and came to Baltimore in the Tejada deal. You've probably noticed a lot of ex-Astro and ex-Mariner guys in these post. And ex-Cubs galore, in many facets, in Baltimore. Albers has had some success this season, mixing a decent fastball with a quality curveball and good change-up. His effectiveness is about average, but his stuff is helped by his low arm-angle (compare him to Sarfate) gives him sink and a lot of ground balls. He won't do it much more than 1 out of 4, but he'll throw a first pitch strike with a curveball. When he gets ahead, look for the hammer.
Jim Johnson is a product of the Oriole's 2001 draft. He's huge, and throws very hard, mostly two-seamers. He looks to be throwing from a 3/4 arm slot, and has a mid-90's fastball. He's been outstanding this season, his rookie season (just five total innings in 2006/7), with a sub-1.00 WHIP and 1.11 ERA. Johnson's change-up is the only thing he doesn't throw strikes with, and it isn't meant to be. It gets chased and whiffed A LOT (47% and 40% respectively). He yields a .181 noKSLG and plenty of ground outs. He's tied with Bradford for the team lead in holds, so expect to see him in the later innings.
