Quick plot post this morning before I run off to a meeting. Release points for Matt Cain and Geno Espineli from last nights loss against the Padres.
Cain’s release point looks pretty good. The pitches are grouped pretty closely together. Sometimes if a pitcher changes his arm angle to throw a breaking ball, hitters will be able to tell by the release point. Cain appears to throw pretty much all of his pitches from the same slot. He releases his changeup slightly higher than his other pitches.
Geno’s plot is pretty funky, just like his motion. He’s throwing the ball almost 3 feet further out on the horizontal plane than Matt Cain is. His motion includes a drop down to the side and then he slings the ball across his body. You can really tell how far he gets outside with his release point. You’ll notice that his release point for the changeup is slightly higher than his fastball. It could be something that hitters are picking up on. The highest grouping, the orange dots, are from his intentional pass.
[...] release point is an oblong grouping. You’ll notice that it’s different than Matt Cain’s more circular grouping that we plotted a couple of days ago. I mentioned earlier that I thought Lincecum might have been [...]