Daily Notes: Mostly Just Regarding Corey Kluber’s Changeup

Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Regarding Corey Kluber’s Changeup
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Regarding Corey Kluber’s Changeup
A Largely Uninteresting, But Still Factual, Point Regarding the Author
The reader will likely not be fascinated to learn, but the author is compelled to announce anyway, that he (i.e. that same author) was forced to compose the greater portion of these Notes at 2:00am CT at a Comfort Inn in Prospect Heights, Illinois — this, after his travel plans from New York City to Madison, Wisconsin, were altered for the less convenient.

While one’s own travel woes are Pressing and Important, it’s also true that another’s (i.e. another’s travel woes) are both Tedious and Wearisome. That being the case, the author will not elaborate on his own any further. He mentions it here primarily as justification for why this edition of the Notes is mostly just regarding Corey Kluber’s changeup.

A More Interesting Point, In This Case Regarding Corey Kluber
Corey Kluber has demonstrated the ability to throw a number of pitches effectively, including (and perhaps limited to): a two-seam fastball at 93-95 mph; a cutter at about 90 mph over which has pretty great control and can also induce swings and misses; a slider at 83-85 mph that’s effective against both right- and left-handed batters; and a changeup, usually at about 85 mph.

It was the last of these pitches which induced the most whiffs for Kluber during his rather successful Friday start (box), both overall (six total) and by percentage thrown (ca. 32% of those he threw created whiffs). Because the author hasn’t concentrated his attentions on that pitch previously, he has used the present edition of the Notes to do so.

Action Footage: Changeup to Hosmer
Here’s action footage from the first inning of Kluber throwing his changeup for a swinging strike to Eric Hosmer:

Action Footage: Another Changeup to Hosmer
Here’s additional footage of Kluber throwing the changeup to Hosmer — in this case, in the sixth inning and for a third strike:

Action Footage: Changeup to Johnson
Here’s Kluber getting a swinging third strike on the changeup versus Elliot Johnson in the third:

Action Footage: Changeup to Johnson
Here’s that same pitch, except in this case with a comet-like trail which (perhaps) better illustrates the pitch’s movement:

Action Footage: Changeup to Johnson
And finally, here’s even more footage of that third strike to Johnson, except in this case in very slow motion and from behind home plate, (perhaps) to better illustrate the movement of the pitch from the batter’s perspective.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Cincinnati at Atlanta | 16:05 ET
Homer Bailey (116.2 IP, 82 xFIP-, 2.9 WAR) faces Mike Minor (115.0 IP, 95 xFIP-, 2.0 WAR) in what is likely to be one of the day’s most well-pitched games. Of some interest: the Atlanta center-field camera continues to be one of the league’s best, allowing for the best possible angle of seeing each pitcher’s respective repertoire.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta 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 5.8.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Samuel Deduno	MIN	3	3	4	3	5	NYA	Phil Hughes	13:05
John Danks	CHA	7	2	5	1	5	PHI	Jon. Pettibone	15:05
Homer Bailey	CIN	9	3	8	7	8	ATL	Mike Minor	16:05
Todd Redmond*	TOR	4	6	4	8	3	BAL	Jason Hammel	16:05
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	6	2	6	10	6	TB	Rob. Hernandez	16:10
Jeremy Guthrie	KC	1	6	4	7	6	CLE	Scott Kazmir	19:05
Tyler Chatwood	COL	6	8	5	2	3	LAN	Zack Greinke	19:15
Carlos Torres*	NYN	7	6	7	6	7	PIT	A.J. Burnett	19:15
Lance Lynn	STL	7	4	6	4	5	CHN	Matt Garza	19:15
Derek Holland	TEX	9	3	8	7	10	DET	Max Scherzer	19:15
Dan Haren	WAS	6	2	7	2	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	19:15
Hector Santiago	CHA	5	2	4	1	4	PHI	John Lannan	20:15
Jon Lester	BOS	5	8	6	6	5	OAK	A.J. Griffin	22:05
Jered Weaver	LAA	3	6	6	6	9	SEA	Felix Hernandez	22:10
Kyle Lohse	MIL	5	4	6	2	10	AZ	Randall Delgado	22:10
Tim Lincecum	SF	8	6	6	6	3	SD	Edinson Volquez	22:10

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.