Pineiro's Gem

Instead of moping, I decided to admire Joel Pineiro's shut-out of the Cubs. To do so, I compared his sinker from Tuesday night to the sinkers thrown by Derek Lowe and Brandon Webb (both during August 2008 in St. Louis).

Enjoy the pictures. Click for larger versions.

First up is spin movement, in inches. It's the catcher's view, and it shows how much the pitch deviated from the path of a spin-less ball. Gravity alone would predict 0 inches of vertical movement. Pineiro's sinker has less tail than Lowe's, less sink than Webb's. Webb has an exceptional sinker, and a change-up that drops even more.



A cousin of the spin movement chart is the spin axis. Here it is, with velocity on the y-axis. As you can see, Pineiro and Lowe have similar velocities, and there's just a bit more tilt on the axis for Lowe. Webb is a notch slower, but the spin angle relates directly to the amount of sink he gets. Remember, Webb is gravity + some top-spin, based on the first chart.



Oddly, Lowe and Webb release the pitch from about the same spot. Pineiro seems to vary his slot, based on the angle and dispersion of release points. Lowe is the most consistent, you may not even be able to make out his dots, they are a tight blob in the middle of Webb's.



When it comes to location, all three pitchers kept it down in the starts we're looking at. Lowe's control was phenomenal with his sinker. Low but in the zone. Pineiro missed low, while Webb, somewhat surprisingly, missed high a few times. All had good control of the sinker, though.



Putting it all together, the flight paths. Be sure to click for the big version, and squint to see the three paths, there is a ton of overlap.



Pineiro's sinker may not have the movement of Lowe's or Webb's, but it's still impressive. Cubs fans shouldn't lament the shut-out, he's not the same pitcher we've seen in the past.

The variance in Pineiro's arm angle makes me wonder what's going on, but that will require another look.