The decision that was announced this week seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
The Cubs' pitching is falling into place, with Sean Marshall being named the fifth starter on Thursday and Aaron Heilman moving into the bullpen.
Heilman seems content with the bullpen role - his version of a hometown discount is no grousing, right?
What becomes of the Shark?
Earlier Thursday, Piniella had called Jeff Samardzija into his office to let the right-hander know he's still got a chance to make the Opening Day roster as a reliever
A chance. Right now, Samardzija is best suited for relief. His secondary pitches just don't cut it. If his future is as a starter, he should go to Iowa. Then again, Earl Weaver would groom starters in the bullpen, but that was a different era.
The goal with the 5th Starter f/x "series" was to follow along with the battle for the job. Well, after part 2, there was very little question left about the battle. I do have some more stuff on Sean Marshall ready to go.
You might want to refresh yourself:
- Introducing the Candidates was a review of earlier work I've done - you get the basics on their stuff and a little extra
- Slices and Layers got into some aspects of pitch location
What I teased in the Slices and Layers post were scatter plots, by count, by pitch type for each pitcher. We already know I lied about the "each pitcher" part - and here's another, um, correction.
Instead of count, here's Marshall by situation.
And there are lefty/right splits (to make up for broken promises). + for righties o for lefties.
All charts are in feet, catcher's view. Click to zoom. Presented without commentary - hopefully the pictures are sufficient for your own exploration.
Clockwise from top-left these are :
- change-ups (blue)
- curveballs (coral)
- two-seam fastballs (dark red)
- sliders (light turquoise or whtvr Excel calls it)
- cutters (green) a
- four-seam fastballs (light yellow)
First (0-0)
Even (1-1,2-2)
Ahead (0-1,0-2,1-2)
Behind (1-0,2-0,3-0,2-1,3-1)
Full (3-2)
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