Colby Lewis Reminds Me Of...

Playing around with pitchers who have similar stuff to each other. Ran Colby Lewis and his five pitches and found some interesting names.

First, Colby's pitch mix has been talked about a lot. He's Mr. Slider now that he's back from Japan, and he's been doing very well, so he's been the subject of a lot of electronic ink.

Here's the quick skinny on Lewis:

Four-seam fastball (91 mph)
Slider (83)
Two-seam fastball (91)
Curveball (80)
Change-up (85)

That's in order of usage in 2010, by the way.

Here's who has stuff like Lewis does, in speed and movement (along with the "close" pitches they match on).

Aaron Harang (slider, fastball, sinker)
Jason Berken (slider, fastball, sinker)
Todd Wellemeyer (slider, fastball, sinker)
Willie Eyre (fastball, sinker, curve)
Chris Volstad (sinker, curve, change)
Michael Ekstrom (fastball, sinker, change)
Geoff Geary (fastball, sinker, change)

If I loosen the reigns a bit, Berken adds a matching curveball and Eyre the slider. What's really interesting is Ben Sheets, John Lackey and John Maine match on all five pitches.

If I throw in a very loose release-point requirement, he ends up being Eddie Bonine without the knuckleball. Or a shorter John Lackey.