Friday, August 6, 2010

Breaking Down Javier Lopez

August 3, 2010 Denver, CO. Javier Lopez of the San Francisco Giants pitches in action during the Major League Baseball game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado August 3, 2010..The Giants beat the Rockies 10-0..Aaron Salley/CSM.

We got our first real extended look of the Giants new LOOGY Javier Lopez in Thursday's game against the Atlanta Braves.

He threw an inning and two thirds of scoreless no hit baseball. Below is a summary of his pitch f/x stats. We saw his 2 main pitches the mid to high 80's fastball and the low 80's slider.

Pitch Statistics
Pitch Type Avg Speed Max Speed Avg H-Break Avg V-Break Count Strikes / % Swinging Strikes / % Linear Weights Time to Plate
FF (FourSeam Fastball) 86.94 89.3 10.93 -2.12 11 9 / 81.82% 1 / 9.09% -0.9392 0.439
SL (Slider) 79.94 85.4 2.87 0.05 5 4 / 80.00% 0 / 0.00% -0.4503 0.476
Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches.


He didn't miss a lot of bats (only one swinging strike) but also didn't give up any loud contact.
He has a funky delivery and changes his arm angle quite a bit ranging from about a high side arm to a high submarine style pitch.

He was very effective against the lefty heavy Braves lineup. I am impressed with the way he went through things.

I am still concerned about his low strike out numbers and high walk stuff but hopefully he can stay tough against lefty's and that Bruce Bochy leaves the real high leverage stuff for Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson.

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