Introducing David Patton

Cubs Rule 5 acquisition David Patton made his big league debut Wednesday in Houston. It is also the first dose of PITCHf/x we have on the four-year veteran of A-ball. Patton did pitch in Yankee Stadium, but there was no data for either of the Cubs exhibition games in the Bronx.

Tomorrow I'll wrap-up the Cubs 2-1 series victory, taking a look at the rest of the pitching staff, along with Milton Bradley and Kosuke Fukudome. Put this is Patton time.

Patton's Debut

In what turned out to be a crazy game, the Cubs staked Ted Lilly an eight run lead before the Astros starting popping home runs. They had five in total, four solo (thankfully) and one off Patton.

Patton came on in relief of Lilly to start the sixth inning. He feel behind free swinger Hunter Pence before yielding an opposite field, line drive home run. Pat and Ron took note of a visit Derrek Lee paid as Pence rounded the bases, and I guess Patton did, too.

The next six batters were set down on three grounders, one fly ball and two strike outs. In the seventh, Patton got Lance Berkman swinging after shaking off a sign on an 0-1 count. I guess Patton trusts his breaking ball, because he got Berkman to swing and miss and two in a row, ending the inning and the rookie's debut.

What He Threw

Patton's delivery, as advertised, was "short-armed". That style makes his fastball sneaky—and it doesn't need to be, he can dial it up to 95 mph. His breaking pitch is tight and comes out of what looks to be the same delivery and release point. Let's see what PITCHf/x thinks about that.

Houston has the noisiest PITCHf/x system around. It is highly accurate in terms of plate locations (or has tested very well in the past), but the pitch characteristics in the Gameday data files have an unusual amount of variability in them relative to any other ballpark. So take anything out of Houston with a grain of salt in terms of precision from pitch-to-pitch. Fortunatly, Patton only appears to be throwing two pitches.

First thing I see in the PITCHf/x data is something I didn't see on TV, that his release points varied. I'm calling his breaking ball a slider (Gameday called most curveballs), but he's actually releasing it more overhand than nearly all his fastballs (four-seamers).

David Patton release points (in feet) from catcher's view:



But I think I'm right on the two pitches. The spin movement data (in inches) is noisy, as noted above. The inset shows pitch speed from fastest to slowest. The split between fastball and slider is obvious. There's one slider hiding at 79.8 mph, just off the chart.

David Patton spin movement (in inches) from catcher's view:



He seems to be throwing everything glove side. In to lefties, away from righties.

David Patton plate locations (in feet) from catcher's view:





Patton's fastball averaged 94 mph and the slider 82. He threw almost an even mix of 13 heaters and 11 breaking balls. David started off three of the four lefties he faced with a four-seamer, but the 12 total pitches he threw to Matsui, Berkman, Bourn and Smith included five sliders.

The three righties who saw Patton (Keppinger, Pence and Pudge) got an even mix of sliders and fastballs in their dozen pitches. Keppinger and Pence both got first-pitch sliders.

This is a teeny-weeny sample, but Patton threw strikes with his fastball and got whiffs with his slider. Five swings, three caught air. No hits off the breaking ball—Pence homered on a fastball on the outer half. Hitters seemed to be off balance, taking strikes and swinging at balls. This reflects the new pitcher advantage, one which could wear off quickly.

Patton did a nice job at keeping the ball down. Perhaps too nice. Almost 46% of his pitches were below the strike zone while another 29% were in the lower third. The slider was more extreme, as you can see in the plots above, but he kept the fastball down, too.

That's It For Now

I'm looking forward to his next outing for some more data and to see how he performs against better prepared hitters.