Daily Notes: Three Types of Chart Regarding Kevin Gausman
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Three Types of Chart Regarding Kevin Gausman
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Three Types of Chart Regarding Kevin Gausman
Introduction
Much praised Baltimore right-hander Kevin Gausman made his major-league debut on Thursday, during which he demonstrated considerable promise but also ultimately conceded four runs in five innings (box). Below are three charts and/or graphs relevant to that debut.
Lightly Annotated PITCHf/x Chart
Here’s a lightly annotated PITCHf/x chart of Gausman’s debut, which chart reveals that Gausman most likely threw three different pitches on Thursday: a fastball at 94-98 mph, a changeup at 82-86 mph, and a slider at 82-84 mph.
Poorly Designed Fastball Velocity Chart
This is a poorly designed chart (or perhaps graph, actually) of Gausman’s velocity from his debut by nth fastball thrown — which chart (or perhaps graph, actually) reveals both that (a) Gausman was able to retain his fastball velocity as his pitch count increased and also (b) that the author doesn’t understand how to set the starting interval at 0, such that subsequent labeled intervals would be marked 10, 20, etc.
Hastily Made Pleasure Bar Graph
This is a hastily made bar graph of the pleasure provided to the author by each of Gausman’s three different pitches, wherein pleasure is measured on a scaled of 0-10, obviously — which bar graph reveals that Gausman’s changeup provided distinctly the most pleasure to the author during his (i.e. Gausman’s) debut.
Action Footage: Gausman’s Changeup
Here’s footage of Gausman’s changeup, thrown to Colby Rasmus in the fourth inning for a swinging strike.
Action Footage: Gausman’s Changeup, Still
Here’s more footage of Gausman’s changeup, from that same at-bat to Colby Rasmus, also for a swinging strike.
Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Miami at Chicago AL | 20:10 ET
Tom Koehler (22.1 IP, 101 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR) faces John Danks (N/A). The latter makes his first major-league start since last May — this after demonstrating control problems, however, during his minor-league rehab (13 walks, 97 batters). The former was impressive in his most recent appearance, sitting at 91-95 mph with his fastball while recording lowest single-game xFIP among all starters last Saturday.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Miami Radio, It Would Seem.
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 5.4.
Note: the following table is entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Kendrick | PHI | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 9 | WAS | J. Zimmermann | 19:05 |
| Chris Tillman | BAL | 3 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 11 | TOR | Sean Nolin* | 19:07 |
| Samuel Deduno* | MIN | 6 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 10 | DET | Anibal Sanchez | 19:08 |
| Kris Medlen | ATL | 3 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 2 | NYN | Jeremy Hefner | 19:10 |
| Scott Feldman | CHN | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | CIN | Bronson Arroyo | 19:10 |
| Justin Masterson | CLE | 7 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 7 | BOS | John Lackey | 19:10 |
| David Phelps | NYA | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | TB | Rob. Hernandez | 19:10 |
| Jason Vargas | LAA | 3 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | KC | Luis Mendoza | 20:10 |
| Tom Koehler* | MIA | 7 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 | CHA | John Danks* | 20:10 |
| Tommy Milone | OAK | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | HOU | Erik Bedard | 20:10 |
| A.J. Burnett | PIT | 9 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | MIL | Marco Estrada | 20:10 |
| Eric Stults | SD | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | AZ | Bran. McCarthy | 21:40 |
| Lance Lynn | STL | 6 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 6 | LAN | Chris Capuano* | 22:10 |
| Justin Grimm | TEX | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | SEA | Joe Saunders | 22:10 |
| Tyler Chatwood* | COL | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 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.
The author of this comment believes the pleasurability factor of Gausman’s fastball is being severely underrated by the author of this article.
This comment reads as something that the lovechild of Carson and Perd Hapley would have said.
maybe it was just nerves on his part but he didnt seem to be able to command his fastball as much as I expected him to, and that is what got him into trouble in the 4th and the 5th, he certainly has great stuff though.
He doesn’t have enough moxie. Brandon Morrow gave up more runs but still managed to get the W. Moxie.
I know you are being facetious but Morrow pitched pretty well before coming apart in the 8th.
Did you see the movement on that changeup? #shades of a young Greg Maddux
I saw Colby Rasmus swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, so I had a pretty good feeling the day of the week ended with a “y”. I’d have been more impressed with the gif’s if the batter in them had ever in all his playing days recognized and laid off an offspeed pitch out of the zone.
White Sox announcers are the WORST in baseball. Yes, I’d take Miami over that.
Sean Nolin an 11? Did not know that weight loss success meant that much in the exercise of discretion…
I remember that exact at-bat against Rasmus, because Gausman threw Rasmus 6 changeups in a row, Rasmus laid off enough of them to work the count full, fouled off a fastball, and then took a changeup just off the plate for a walk. Yes, after being down 1-2, Colby Rasmus walked. No bullshit.
Also can we get a gif of the swinging strike 3 to Lind in the 1st inning? I’ll love you forever Carson.
Carson already provided us with every swinging strike over at NotGraphs last night.
Cards v Dodger radio matchup worth mentioning
1) In order to set the origin of your chart to zero you have to create a corresponsing series starting from 0 and setting it as the x-axis label
2) It speaks volumes for Baltimores minor legue depth that they are forced to play Gausman less then a year after drafting him, straight out of AA and with far from major-league-ready staff. Bundy and Gausman may be the future but they are probably not the present.
Seems to me their rotation IS major league ready. Maybe not a top-10 staff, but 4 of 5 (Hammel, Chen, Gonzo, Tillman) got them to the playoffs last year. They have room for improvement, but I believe they each can perform as last year.
As for Gausman not being ready, I guess I would ask according to what standard? He’s 1 year out of college ball, has destroyed A- and AA-ball, owns an excellent K/BB, and demonstrates amazing stuff. Of Arrieta, Britton, Jurrjens, Stinson, Baltimore thinks he’s their best option. I would tend to agree.
Besides, 1 year experience through AA ball has been shown to be a proving ground for advanced players. See Machado, Manny.
rogers centre gun is pretty fast compared to other parks. just something to keep in mind.