Exploring the Arsenal – Lance Lynn

Exploring the Arsenal will run prior to each game, providing you with a brief scouting report on the starting pitcher expected to oppose the Pirates. The chart below shows the horizontal and vertical movement of every pitch thrown by that particular pitcher in 2012. This chart is from the catcher’s point of view. For a general guide to pitch types for a right-handed pitcher, please check out this image created by Sons of Sam Horn. Graphs are courtesy of Brooks Baseball and The Hardball Times , unless otherwise specified.

Saturday, 2:15 PM – Lance Lynn

Lynn is a hard-throwing, 25-year-old right-hander that misses plenty of bats, which has led to excellent strike out numbers early in his major league career. He mostly throws his four-seam fastball in the 92-93 range, occasionally touching 95 MPH. He reached as high as 97 MPH while pitching in relief last season. The pitch has been pretty untouchable to this point, with a whiff rate that stacks up well with some of the best fastballs in the game. Lynn throws from a low three-quarters arm slot, which gives his 91-93 MPH sinker plenty of movement. The sinker misses a lot of bats, while also generating a ton of ground balls. His big, slurvy 78-80 MPH curveball is a solid pitch with considerable horizontal movement. Lynn mixes in an occasional 83-85 MPH changeup with good sinking movement, almost exclusively against left-handed batters. He also appears to throw a rare upper 80′s cutter. Lynn tends to work up in the zone with his four-seamer. He mostly uses the sinker against lefties, locating it down and away. He has done a very good job of keeping his secondary offerings down, very rarely leaving a curve or change in the upper half of the zone. The image below shows the locations of each of his 2012 changeups against left-handed batters, courtesy of FanGraphs (reminder: these are from the catcher’s point of view). Lynn has faced the Pirates twice in 2012, allowing three runs in 13.2 innings.