Month: February 2015 | Page 8 | FanGraphs Baseball

Archive for February, 2015

Looking for Justin Verlander’s Curveball

February 19, 2015

Maybe it was all a setup for the headline, but in Anthony Fenech’s piece about Justin Verlander and his effort to return to glory — titled “Tigers’ Verlander ‘way ahead of the curve’ early this spring” — the pitcher points to the current state of his curveball as a sign of early success.

“I’ve seen a pretty dramatic difference,” he said. “The curveball seems to be a lot better already than it was at any point last year.”

Catcher Bryan Holaday, who stood in for the final few pitches of the session, agreed, saying the spin was nice and tight.

Verlander notices the difference, especially in the break, from last year, when his breaking pitches, “Neither one of those pitches was good at all last year. They didn’t have the same bite.”

Much of the previous analysis of Verlander’s poor year focused on his fastball velocity and fading release points. And the pitcher himself referenced those factors a bit when, later in the piece, he admits that he was underweight due to last year’s offseason surgery on his core.

But this might be the first time we’ve heard about the curve missing tightness.

Read the rest of this entry »

Winter Contract Extensions are Becoming Increasingly Rare

by Craig Edwards

February 19, 2015

On February 17, 2011, Jose Bautista signed a five-year, $65 million extension with the Toronto Blue Jays. Bautista’s contract was one of a dozen similar extensions signed by players that Winter. From the 2008 to 2011, at least 11 players signed extensions similar to Bautista’s every winter (Extensions between end of the postseason and February 17th, using MLB Trade Rumors Extension Tracker). At the time, Bautista had fewer than six years of service time, agreed to a contract exceeding two years, and the contract bought out at least one free agent season. Offseason extensions are a fairly common practice, but in recent years, they have become increasingly rare. Since 2011, no offseason has seen double-digit extensions. Only Giancarlo Stanton, Kyle Seager, Wade Miley, and Devin Mesoraco signed similar contracts this Winter, matching a recent low of four from two offseasons ago.

While the number of extensions has gone down considerably in winter, the costs associated with these contracts have not experienced the same downturn. From 2008 to 2011, 47 Winter extensions cost teams $1.66 billion while the last four winters have seen teams sign extensions totalling $1.51 billion in guaranteed money to just 22 players. $150 million dollars is hardly a small amount, but the number of deals dropped by more than half, causing the cost to sign an individual extension with a player to go up considerably.

Read the rest of this entry »

Barry Zito, Scott Kazmir, and Magical Velocity Gains

by Owen Watson

February 19, 2015

Navigate to Ron Wolforth’s website and you’ll immediately see this.

Normally I’m hesitant to engage with places that approach me like I’m watching the pitching equivalent of QVC at 4 a.m., but Ron Wolforth has the track record to make bold statements: he’s worked with Trevor Bauer since the first round pick was 14 years old, and most recently he took Scott Kazmir from out of baseball to pumping mid-90’s gas for Cleveland in the span of a year. That second achievement is what we’re going to pay attention to today, because the news came down this past week that the Oakland Athletics signed Barry Zito to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. Why is this of specific interest to us, you may ask? Because Zito has been working with Wolforth for the past four months to completely revamp his delivery and regain his lost velocity. The most recent reports say Zito is throwing in the high-80’s after the training, with Wolforth guaranteeing 90 MPH by “April or May”.

Ron Wolforth is more scientist than scout – the type of outsider that the baseball establishment views with a sideways look. His reputation improved with Bauer getting drafted in the first round in 2011 (he even secured an invitation to spring training with Cleveland in 2013 after Bauer was traded from the Diamondbacks), but the feeling you get is that he’s still not completely trusted – that his methods are out of keeping with the entrenched mentality of the game’s established coaches. The same resistance to intellectual approaches that kept sabermetrics out of the game (and still does in some circles) is part of what is keeping Wolforth out of it.

That’s where Barry Zito comes in. There are differences in Kazmir and Zito’s cases: there is the age difference — which is nearly five years — and the fact that Kazmir is a power pitcher while Zito is known more for relying on secondary offerings. The fact remains, however, that both have one major thing in common: they were out of baseball, struggling with an almost total loss of fastball velocity, and turned to Ron Wolforth for help. Kazmir was written off; he regained almost ten MPH and made it back. Can Zito follow the same path? Read the rest of this entry »

Eno Sarris Baseball Chat — 2/19/15

by Eno Sarris

February 19, 2015