Tim Lincecum vs. Carlos Zambrano. Hopefully both will be at the top of their game. With Derrek Lee's neck spasms and Aramis Ramirez's balky shoulder, Lincecum will face a weak Cubs line-up. That hasn't necessarily worked in The Freak's favor in the past.
Lincecum throws a few pitches. Four- and two-seam fastballs, change-ups, curveballs and even a few sliders. To facilitate a thumbnail of the Giants' ace, I'm dealing with fastballs (both varieties), curves and changes. Here are a few of my favorite metrics, both for 2009 and his career (most of his games are in PITCHf/x, even many of his 2007 starts). You can click the headers to sort.
| Pitch | When | In Zone* | SLGCON | Whiff | Watch | rv100 | rv100E |
| Fastball | All | .578 | .475 | .142 | .432 | -0.66 | -0.24 |
| Change-up | All | .427 | .431 | .433 | .206 | -2.78 | -2.45 |
| Curveball | All | .436 | .411 | .373 | .504 | -1.44 | -0.90 |
| Fastball | 2009 | .579 | .498 | .124 | .459 | -0.48 | -0.09 |
| Change-up | 2009 | .421 | .377 | .422 | .201 | -4.19 | -3.51 |
| Curveball | 2009 | .443 | .340 | .331 | .483 | -1.51 | -0.34 |
His change-up is the most effective pitch in baseball, based on run values. And it's no fluke. The basic experience with Lincecum can be summarized as:
- Fastballs that you can't do much with and get called for a lot of strikes
- Curveballs that freeze you in the zone and produce at least an average whiff rate (for a curve)
- Change-ups that are devastating
*two feet wide, individual hitters' top/bottoms
2 comments:
But what if he's upset about last night's episode of The Office? What if he wanted Dwight to be promoted, not Jim? Sorry, Harry. You can't measure that.
Once Sportvision and Nielsen merge, we're golden.
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