Nick Swisher The Pitcher
Not having a long reliever sometimes comes back to bite you on the behind. Last night, the Yankees found this out, but were not the only ones red in the face.
The starting first baseman, Nick Swisher, took over pitching duties in the bottom of the 8th and did the unthinkable, he struck a major league hitter out…via swinging strike. The unlucky victim was Gabe Kapler. Needless to say, Kapler probably won’t be living this down anytime soon. Take a look at Swisher’s pitches and their movement:
Sure, he topped out in the low-80’s (80.2 MPH exactly), but he’s got better stuff than some pitchers. Daniel Cabrera, for instance.
Of course I’m joking, but only a by a bit.
You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.
Not only is he slugging 1.150 but if he never throws another pitch in his life he’ll retire with a 1.70 tRA.
Welcome back, Swish.
Nick Swisher for MVP and Cy Young
Tony Pena Jr. struck out Ivan Rodriguez last year. Had a 1-2-3 inning if I recall correctly.
When Tony Pena Jr pitched an inning on July 21 last year, not only was his performance so good that he inspired Royals fans to clamor for him to move to the mound permanently (an easy thing to do, given his – ahem – “efforts” with the bat), he struck out Pudge Rodriguez looking. Somehow or another, Pudge striking out against Pena seems even harder to live down Kapler striking out against Swisher.
yeah obviously because Pudge is a high contact guy and you know. a hall of famer (steroids not taken into account) . while Kapler’s most famous for his (probably roid helped) physique and his epic diving catch of a ball that must have landed 20 feet away from where he was diving at.
Agreed, TPJ was more impressive. But I do love it every time a fielder takes the mound. I’m still waiting for this to happen to the Cardinals so Ankiel can take the hill for them.
I’m sure there’s nothing the Cardinals would like to do more than to risking Ankiel having a personal meltdown by forcing him to pitch.
Agreed. I don’t think Ankiel is even on the list for emergency pitchers for the Cards. Why risk it? You’re not going to make him back into a pitcher, and the potential harm far outweighs any gain from 1 or 2 innings.
Sorry for the dumb question in advance, but can someone please explain how to properly read the pitch movement chart (what are X/Y axis values)? Is there any correlation with location? I’m late to the party.
Thanks.
In this case, the graph is the upper right quadrant of a larger graph. A negative x-value means the ball moved in to righties, a positive x-value is in to lefties, and a negative y-value is the ball sunk more than a ball with no gravity would sink.
Thanks R.J., that puts a little more perspective on it.
I don’t believe that y-value explanation is correct. If a negative y-value means the ball sunk more than a ball with no gravity would, a positive y-value would mean the ball actually rises (no gravity implies the ball is travelling in a straight-line). A rising ball doesn’t happen in baseball, but positive y-values do.
I always thought the correct explanation is the y-value is the amount of movement relative to the expected drop from gravity. In other words, gravity is expected to make the ball drop a certain distance over the course of the pitch, and a negative y-value is how much additional sink the ball had, and a positive y-value is how much less sink the ball had than expected given gravity.
Yeah, you’re right B
Err, the y-value explanation should read “no sink” not “no gravity”.
Pitch f/x records a pitch’s movement relative to a theoretical ball with no spin.
So it’s kind of like a catcher’s-eye-view, with a completely neutrally thrown ball hitting the origin. Is that right?
That’s about as well as I’ve heard it summed up, yes.
Yeah, iPena’s inning was one-two-three.
Pena when he pitched the 1-2-3 inning had a fastball and a curve. He also has a stronger arm and fastball than Swisher
Put him in the pen. j/k
Does that cost him his at bats or can you DH for a position other than pitcher?
Could they theoretically pen Swisher in at SS, and pen a SS in at pitcher, and have Swisher pitch, meaning the DH would be hitting for the guy playing SS? Or is that against the rules somewhere?
DH can only be used for the pitcher.
As soon as someone already in the batting order, or in the game defensively, takes the mound, there is no more DH for the remainder of the game (also if the DH takes a defensive position, the pitcher must then bat in the spot of the player who left the game)
What I mean is, you play Swisher at ‘SS’ even though he pitches, and the SS as ‘P’ even though he’s playing short, and the DH would replace the pitcher who is actually playing SS. Is that against the rules?
I’m no expert on baseball rules, but I think it’s a balk if anyone other than the pitcher steps on the rubber.
There was a website (Baseball Born by Bits?) that did sim scores for pitchers based on their Pitch F/X data. Wonder who Swisher’s comparables are?
Probably Jamie Moyer.
Yeah way better than Daniel Cabrera… makes the game enjoyable to watch too.
Hey R.J., where do you get your pitch f/x data from?
I knew Swisher was gonna bounce back this season, but not like this!
As much as I hate the Yankees (STEINBRENNER!!!!!!!!!!), most of their guys aren’t bad. Swisher is one of my favorite players overall, good to see he’s doing well…
So what pitches do you think swisher throws, or is it just a fastball?
The only Pitch f/x chart I’ve ever looked at is Cliff Lee’s, in some book about last season. Looks to me Swisher has multiple options, though.