Barry Zito topped out at 85.2 mph according to pitch fx and that was the only pitch to break the 85 mph barrier. Yet somehow he went on to pitch the first shutout by a lefty in Colorado since 1997.
If you are in the camp that pitchers need to throw hard to be successful this (and I am one) this is a strike against you.
Zito was masterful with just about all of his pitches today. Here is the data from brooksbaseball with the linear weights where a negative number represents a better pitch:
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)
|
83.91
|
84.5
|
2.55
|
5.80
|
9
|
4 / 44.44%
|
1 / 11.11%
|
0.4817
|
0.439
|
CH (Changeup)
|
75.17
|
77
|
8.12
|
0.66
|
15
|
7 / 46.67%
|
1 / 6.67%
|
-1.0193
|
0.494
|
SL (Slider)
|
77.53
|
78.4
|
-0.26
|
1.04
|
16
|
10 / 62.50%
|
1 / 6.25%
|
-1.2016
|
0.478
|
CU (Curveball)
|
71.56
|
74.5
|
-3.96
|
-9.90
|
20
|
14 / 70.00%
|
2 / 10.00%
|
-0.4545
|
0.528
|
FC (Cutter)
|
79.13
|
81.6
|
0.02
|
1.06
|
21
|
14 / 66.67%
|
0 / 0.00%
|
-1.4503
|
0.470
|
FT (TwoSeam Fastball)
|
83.99
|
85.2
|
6.79
|
5.91
|
33
|
22 / 66.67%
|
2 / 6.06%
|
-1.0742
|
0.441
|
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. | |||||||||
Zito was on all day and didn't look back.
The Rockies were out front looking for harder stuff that just never came. Zito induced weak contact and was able to work himself out of the few jams that happened over the course of the day. It wasn't the 10+ strikeout masterpiece that we are used to with Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner but it sure was effective today.
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