Apr 152010
Last night Penny induced 11 groundballs. Here’s his “movement” graph, via Texas Leaguers:
Penny had a 4 seam fastball going that he threw 45% of the time. The pitch had about -6.5 inches of “tail” and 13 inches of “rise”, at an average speed of 94 MPH.
He threw a “change”at an average of 89 MPH. The pitch had a lot less “rise” – 6 inches, and had -9.4 inches of tail. He threw the pitch 20% of the time.
Thanks Erik – Not much too much sink to that sinker. Wonder if that’s really a 2-seam fastball – the additional bit of tailing action in on righties seems consistent with a 2-seamer.
Interesting that the four-seam and sinker show little separation on the chart. I guess that might explain why Penny prefers to stick with the tried and true 4. As far as the “change” goes, I’m pretty certain Dave Duncan referred it as a splitter coming out of camp. He endorsed the use of the splitter over the two-seam as well, insofar as Penny got lots of drop on the pitch versus the sinker.
What would be really interesting to look at would be his release point for all the pitches, and perhaps a comparison with last year. It seems one of Penny’s great strengths is near-identical delivery on all his pitches, i.e. deception. Maybe he actually WAS tipping his pitches in Boston?