Mark DiFelice: The Italian Mo
So, the Italian team had a relatively unknown pitcher, Mark DiFelice, start their WBC Game. He pitched four innings, didn't give up a run, and generally did a good job. So why a blog post about him?
Well, Mark DiFelice managed to go 4 innings, throw 45 pitches, and throw only 4 fastballs and 2 curveballs. It wouldn't be so odd if I told you that the 39 other pitches were something like knuckleballs - maybe he's just the Italian Tim Wakefield. Or, maybe the 39 other pitches were a heavy sinker, which a sinkerballer could conceivably throw that often in a short start.
No, Mark DiFelice, starting pitcher for Italy, managed to throw 45 pitches, 4 fastballs, 2 curveballs, and 39 cutters/sliders. 39 Cutters!
The graph above shows all of Mark's pitches, with the horizontal movement of the pitch due to the spin of the ball on the X (horizontal) axis, and the speed of the pitch on the Y (vertical) axis.
Despite the fact that Mark apparently throws at three decidedly non-fast speeds ("slow", "pretty slow", and "very slow"), the "Green" is clearly his "fastball". It's faster than the rest, and it moves like a fastball from a RHP would move. The "Blue" is clearly his curveball. It moves like an RHP's curveball and is thrown decidedly slower than the rest.
And then... Purple. An entire mess of one pitch: the cutter. Never mind the fact that a lot of these cutters don't really even move that much, he continued to throw them. A lot. Ignore the few mislabeled pitches on the next plot (Gameday algorithm continues to frustrate...), but look, in the fourth inning, Mark DiFelice manages to throw ALL cutters. Not a single other pitch.
Impressive.
And, just in case you were wondering: "didn't team Venezeula figure this out?" The answer, almost certainly, is yes. Despite throwing 4IP of 0ER ball, he gave up two hits and a few very loud outs (including a sensational diving play and a runner gunned down trying to take second).
How can we tell Venezuela was looking cutter? Well, only one non-cutter pitch was even swung at all game, and every at-bat ended on a cutter:
Well, Mark DiFelice managed to go 4 innings, throw 45 pitches, and throw only 4 fastballs and 2 curveballs. It wouldn't be so odd if I told you that the 39 other pitches were something like knuckleballs - maybe he's just the Italian Tim Wakefield. Or, maybe the 39 other pitches were a heavy sinker, which a sinkerballer could conceivably throw that often in a short start.
No, Mark DiFelice, starting pitcher for Italy, managed to throw 45 pitches, 4 fastballs, 2 curveballs, and 39 cutters/sliders. 39 Cutters!
The graph above shows all of Mark's pitches, with the horizontal movement of the pitch due to the spin of the ball on the X (horizontal) axis, and the speed of the pitch on the Y (vertical) axis.
Despite the fact that Mark apparently throws at three decidedly non-fast speeds ("slow", "pretty slow", and "very slow"), the "Green" is clearly his "fastball". It's faster than the rest, and it moves like a fastball from a RHP would move. The "Blue" is clearly his curveball. It moves like an RHP's curveball and is thrown decidedly slower than the rest.
And then... Purple. An entire mess of one pitch: the cutter. Never mind the fact that a lot of these cutters don't really even move that much, he continued to throw them. A lot. Ignore the few mislabeled pitches on the next plot (Gameday algorithm continues to frustrate...), but look, in the fourth inning, Mark DiFelice manages to throw ALL cutters. Not a single other pitch.
Impressive.
And, just in case you were wondering: "didn't team Venezeula figure this out?" The answer, almost certainly, is yes. Despite throwing 4IP of 0ER ball, he gave up two hits and a few very loud outs (including a sensational diving play and a runner gunned down trying to take second).
How can we tell Venezuela was looking cutter? Well, only one non-cutter pitch was even swung at all game, and every at-bat ended on a cutter:
5 Comments:
I knew something was strange about DiFilice. This definitely confirms it.
I just wish there was Pitch f/x data for the games in Tokyo.
I can definitely confirm that the pitch is a cutter. He learned how to throw it sometime in the past two years and has ridden the success of the pitch to a career resurgence-- he made his major league debut last year at age 31.
He threw that cutter about 80% of the time in 19 major league innings last year.
However, we have no clue why an 83 mph cutter thrown 80% of the time is a pitch that gets major league hitters out.
I really don't care what DiFelice or the announcers call this pitch because it moves like a slider. I know there is not a lot of distinction between the two but cutters tend to be nearly as fast as the fastball and have almost as much rise as the fastball. DiFelice's slider/cutter last year was almost 5 mph slower than his fastball with almost 5 inches less vertical rise:
http://baseball.bornbybits.com/2008/Mark_DiFelice.html
That pitch is a slider. Note that there are some true cutters there that are almost as fast as the fastball. Now as to why does a 82 mph slider continually get hitters out (he was pretty darn good at it last year too) I also have no idea. Hitters have to be expecting it and it has very little horizontal movement. It seems like a 82 mph BP fastball to me. But he has been effective with it and until they start hitting it you might as well keep throwing it.
I'm still not sure what it is. I made a SoSH post about how he threw 39 sliders, sent an email off to a few people to see what they thought, and everyone said, "No, that's not a slider, that must be a cutter."
Points Slider:
1) It moves like a slider.
2) It's "offspeed", similar to sliders in general.
Points Cutter:
1) Everyone who knows the Brewers says he throws a cutter, which means either he is telling people he throws a cutter, his pitching coach is telling people he throws a cutter, or the announcers are telling people he throws a cutter. Which, I'm not sure.
2) I have a hard time beliving they seriously have a gameplan which says "throw 95% slider". I'm not sure why "throw 95% cutter" is more believable, but I can at least think of some other examples. Anyone else ever thrown that many "true sliders"?
Regardless of what we call it, what an odd style. Just another example of apostatic selection, I guess...
I should have distinguished between what a pitcher calls it vs. what it is. He calls it a cutter, for sure.
CC Sabathia has an 80 mph huge breaking slider, and the announcers (and CC himself) constantly referred to it as a cutter last year.
It is an interesting pitch, anyway.
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