Comments on: Exploring the Arsenal – Bud Norris

By: Ian Rothermund

Ian Rothermund — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:14:00 +0000

At some point I would be interested to see comparisons between pitchers and what that means when you factor in things like pitching on a downward plane. I just feel as though while the pitch f/x information provides a valuable insight, it doesn’t really incorporate all the given information that may be relevant.

An interesting thought, since a knuckleball ideally has no back spin, does that mean that it’s movement on a pitch f/x would register as 0/0? I realize that’s assuming that it’s a perfect knuckleball, or at least an ideal offering, but just out of curiosity.

By: Ian Rothermund

Ian Rothermund — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Ok, great thank you. I knew starting out that the idea of a “rising” fastball was a misnomer, so I figured it had more to do with the amount of resistance the ball had in relation to gravity (most likely to do with the back spin).

By: Operation Shutdown

Operation Shutdown — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Short explanation is that “rise” is the difference between how many inches a ball at a given velocity would vertically fall due to gravity’s effect and how many inches it actually does. Long version is over at fangraphs: http://bit.ly/MJsLa7

By: Ian Rothermund

Ian Rothermund — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:52:00 +0000

I think I have an idea of why it works that way, but whats the explanation as to why fastballs, even sinkers, as well as change-ups have positive vertical break?