Daily Notes: A Brief Review of Rick Porcello’s Tuesday Start
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Brief Review: Rick Porcello’s Tuesday Start
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Brief Review: Rick Porcello’s Tuesday Start
Introduction
Detroit right-hander Rick Porcello, known typically for his power sinker and attendant ground-ball rate, recorded numerous career bests against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night with 11 strikeouts, a 1.04 single-game xFIP, and a 4.03 RE24 (which metric measures runs added relative to the 24 base/out states and is useful for measuring single-game performances by hitters or pitchers). What follows is a brief review of that second start.
Porcello’s Results
As noted, Porcello was quite effective on Tuesday. Overall, he posted the lowest single-game xFIP among all of Tuesday’s 26 starting pitchers and second-highest single-game WAR. Here was his line on the night (box): 8.0 IP, 27 TBF, 11 K, 1 BB, 11 GB on 15 batted-balls (73.3%), 0 HR, 3 H, 0 R.
Porcello’s Pitches
Here’s a PITCHf/x chart of what pitches Porcello threw on Tuesday:

Porcello’s Pitches, Relative to Career Rates
Here’s a table comparing Porcello’s pitch mix on Tuesday to his previous established career rates (the latter care of Brooks Baseball):
Career | Tuesday | Diff | |
---|---|---|---|
Four-Seam | 18% | 18% | 0 pp |
Sinker | 51% | 38% | -13 pp |
Slider | 15% | 6% | -9 pp |
Curve | 4% | 19% | +15 pp |
Changeup | 12% | 18% | +6 pp |
What One Might Conclude
Observing the table above, and noting the difference primarily in sliders (Porcello’s main breaking pitch in the past) thrown relative to curveballs (Porcello’s main breaking pitch on Tuesday), one might conclude that it’s the curve which contributed most directly to his success last night.
While that is a lot to extract from one start, there are real indications — and not merely PITCHf/x classification changes — which demonstrate that Porcello has more or less replaced his slider with his curveball as his main breaking ball. Even more telling, of course, is that Porcello has said as much on a number of occasions this spring. Meanwhile, there are other real indications that Porcello has reached a new level of performance this year so far.
Action Footage: Porcello’s Slider
Here’s a slider by Porcello from the second inning on Tuesday night to Gaby Sanchez:

Action Footage: Porcello’s Curveball
Here’s a curve Porcello threw Sanchez on the pitch directly before that, for a strike looking:

Action Footage: Porcello’s Curveball, Again
Here’s another of Porcello’s curveballs, also from the second inning, in this case (a) in slow motion and (b) for a swinging strikeout versus Pedro Alvarez:

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Washington at Baltimore | 19:05 ET
Jordan Zimmermann (73.2 IP, 89 xFIP-, 1.9 WAR) faces Chris Tillman (58.2 IP, 101 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR). The former is currently third among all pitchers by WAR calculated using run allowed (as opposed to FIP).
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio.
Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.3.
Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
John Danks* | CHA | 6 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 2 | CHN | Scott Feldman | 14:20 |
John Lackey | BOS | 8 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 3 | PHI | Kyle Kendrick | 19:05 |
Bronson Arroyo | CIN | 4 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 7 | CLE | Justin Masterson | 19:05 |
Anibal Sanchez | DET | 10 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 9 | PIT | A.J. Burnett | 19:05 |
Jeremy Hefner | NYN | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | NYA | David Phelps | 19:05 |
Jor. Zimmermann | WAS | 9 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 4 | BAL | Chris Tillman | 19:05 |
Rob. Hernandez | TB | 6 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 8 | MIA | Tom Koehler* | 19:10 |
Esmil Rogers* | TOR | 3 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 4 | ATL | Kris Medlen | 19:10 |
Bran. McCarthy | AZ | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | TEX | Justin Grimm | 20:05 |
Marco Estrada | MIL | 6 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | MIN | Samuel Deduno* | 20:10 |
Luis Mendoza | KC | 3 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 7 | STL | Lance Lynn | 20:15 |
Erik Bedard | HOU | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | COL | Tyler Chatwood | 20:40 |
Chris Capuano | LAN | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 7 | LAA | Jered Weaver* | 22:05 |
Joe Saunders | SEA | 1 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 2 | SD | Eric Stults | 22:10 |
Tommy Milone | OAK | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 7 | SF | Tim Lincecum | 22:15 |
To learn how Pitcher and Team NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Man, it seems like just yesterday John Lackey was at the bottom of the league in NERD. Now he’s pulling an 8, tied for third-best among starters tonite.
Good for him.