An extra two days of rest means more time for John Danks to discover his signature cut fastball that has eluded him for most of this season.
“It hasn’t been very good for most of my starts,” said Danks, who is 0-6 and won’t start again until Tuesday against the Rangers. “In talking with A.J. (Pierzynski) and Coop (pitching coach Don Cooper), it’s almost like I’m throwing it too hard. I’m not giving it a chance to do anything. We’ll work on it. It has been a pitch I’ve gone to a lot the past two years, and I need it now.” …
May 14, 2011
Coop, where is my cutter?
Gavin Floyd loses today’s game and more
| Chi White Sox | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Floyd, G(L, 4-3) | 4.1 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4.22 |
| Pena, To | 2.2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6.92 |
| Sale | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6.08 |
| Totals | 8.0 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 4.14 |
| 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) | 90.06 | 92.1 | -4.62 | 8.08 | 45 | 31 / 68.89% | 2 / 4.44% | 1.9204 | 0.415 |
| CH (Changeup) | 83.52 | 85 | -7.21 | 6.44 | 6 | 1 / 16.67% | 0 / 0.00% | -0.0187 | 0.446 |
| CU (Curveball) | 76.97 | 78.9 | 9.19 | -7.24 | 22 | 12 / 54.55% | 0 / 0.00% | 0.6711 | 0.492 |
| FC (Cutter) | 84.67 | 87.4 | 0.08 | 2.71 | 19 | 14 / 73.68% | 0 / 0.00% | -0.6671 | 0.441 |
| FT (TwoSeam Fastball) | 89.67 | 90.3 | -9.30 | 6.15 | 3 | 1 / 33.33% | 0 / 0.00% | 0.4872 | 0.418 |
| Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate.
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. Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement. |
|||||||||
| Inning-by-Inning Pitch Totals | ||||||||
| Inning | Pitches in Inning | Strikes in Inning | Strike% in Inning | Cumulative Total Pitches | Pitch LWTS in Inning | |||
| 1 | 23 | 12 | 52.17 | 23 | 0.479 | |||
| 2 | 27 | 18 | 66.67 | 50 | 0.941 | |||
| 3 | 12 | 8 | 66.67 | 62 | -0.532 | |||
| 4 | 17 | 10 | 58.82 | 79 | -0.862 | |||
| 5 | 16 | 11 | 68.75 | 95 | 2.368 | |||
Fangraphs says that the velocity of Floyd’d fastball has lost almost 2 mph from last year. Last year Floyd’s average velocity was 92.4 mph and this year he’s down to 90.5 mph:
It is a surprise to find Gavin Floyd‘s name above as he has pitched fantastically so far, having posted career bests in both K/9 and BB/9. However, his SwStk% and Contact% are slightly worse than in the past several years so I would expect his K/9 to drop below 8.0 as a result. Though, he is throwing his curve ball and sliders more frequently this season at the expense of his fastball, which has led to a career best called strike percentage. So maybe his increased K/9 is actually sustainable, if he continues with this altered pitch mix. Still, the decreased velocity remains a slight concern.
The TexasLeaguers.com Pitch-F/X database has the same number (90.5).
Other White Sox links: James looks at the loss of Jeff Gray, and the struggles of and Matt Thornton and excellence of Sergio Santos.
White Sox Baseball: “We have to get on base first.” [UPDATE]
When I asked Ozzie who has the green light to steal home, he laughed and conjured his typical response: "We have to get on base first."—
Brett Ballantini (@CSNChi_Beatnik) May 14, 2011
UPDATE: One more:
Pena's really starting to look like a pitcher who'd prefer to collect his remaining million dollars sitting on a couch in the Dominican—
Brett Ballantini (@CSNChi_Beatnik) May 14, 2011
