Re: WTNY's 2015 Pitch Edits ( Please read the FAQ )
1. Lance Lynn does throw a slider but it's his 6th most used pitch at 0.76% usage over the last 2 years according to Brooks Baseball. We only have 5 slots, so I went with the more utilized pitches. Just because a guy saw a guy throw a pitch once doesn't really elevate it's usage %. It's also probably hard to tell his slider and cutter apart with the naked eye since they're pretty similar only being about 3 mph and a couple inches of break apart.
2. Felix probably does throw a circle change (but I've heard many call it a split as well) as do many others...almost nobody throws a straight change going strictly by the grips. However, I set the dividing line at anything with less than 8 in of lateral movement as a straight change to better jive with the game's representation of pitches. Felix doesn't have nearly as much fade on his offspeed pitch as others who throw a circle change. Honestly, I think it's best to classify it as a splitter due to the velocity (89.5 mph) being off the charts for a changeup in the game. You can always make your own edits.
3. Good call on Kluber and the slurve. I think I will reclassify that one to be a slurve. I generally think the slurve is useless in this game since most pitchers have pitches that are more like sliders or sweeping curves in the game, but slurve matches Kluber best.
4. Kluber's changeup doesn't move laterally enough for me to call it a circle change. So that's staying a straight change. You have to take into account how pitches move in the game as well--the grip means absolutely nothing to this video game.
5. As for your comment about Brooks Baseball being 50/50 at best, I'd much prefer to go by Brooks Baseball and people that actually do this for a living than by randoms watching mlb.tv for several reasons. One of which being it's human nature that people tend to overemphasize small samples and games they saw here and there while PITCHf/x is tracking ALL of the pitches ALL of the time.
1. Lance Lynn does throw a slider but it's his 6th most used pitch at 0.76% usage over the last 2 years according to Brooks Baseball. We only have 5 slots, so I went with the more utilized pitches. Just because a guy saw a guy throw a pitch once doesn't really elevate it's usage %. It's also probably hard to tell his slider and cutter apart with the naked eye since they're pretty similar only being about 3 mph and a couple inches of break apart.
2. Felix probably does throw a circle change (but I've heard many call it a split as well) as do many others...almost nobody throws a straight change going strictly by the grips. However, I set the dividing line at anything with less than 8 in of lateral movement as a straight change to better jive with the game's representation of pitches. Felix doesn't have nearly as much fade on his offspeed pitch as others who throw a circle change. Honestly, I think it's best to classify it as a splitter due to the velocity (89.5 mph) being off the charts for a changeup in the game. You can always make your own edits.
3. Good call on Kluber and the slurve. I think I will reclassify that one to be a slurve. I generally think the slurve is useless in this game since most pitchers have pitches that are more like sliders or sweeping curves in the game, but slurve matches Kluber best.
4. Kluber's changeup doesn't move laterally enough for me to call it a circle change. So that's staying a straight change. You have to take into account how pitches move in the game as well--the grip means absolutely nothing to this video game.
5. As for your comment about Brooks Baseball being 50/50 at best, I'd much prefer to go by Brooks Baseball and people that actually do this for a living than by randoms watching mlb.tv for several reasons. One of which being it's human nature that people tend to overemphasize small samples and games they saw here and there while PITCHf/x is tracking ALL of the pitches ALL of the time.
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