Update on Patton's Fastball Locations

After David Patton's third outing as a Cub, I noted a trend in his fastball location - started down in game 1, moved up in game 2, and even more in game 3. His fourth outing was a welcome departure from that pattern, but the results were not good.

Anyway, here are the charts - I've added the 4/25 game, obviously, but I've also put in the "slices" of the plate, the horizontal location. The slices aren't of equal size - fat is 10 inches and in/out are 7 inches each. Yes, that makes the plate 24", but that is closer to reality than the 17" plate.



First outing was OK. The fastball was down (too down) and he mixed up the locations and stayed away from the middle of the plate.



This is a bad pattern. Up and Fat. Considering the dimensions of the out/in/fat slices, a pitcher is well served having the total pitches finding Out and In exceeding, or being close to, the number in the Fat.



Even more "up" and still a lot of Fat. Starts missing wide.


Patton had trouble finding the strike zone in St. Louis. He was all over the place, which could be a result of the long lay off. Or he might belong in Double-A.