I’ve been a fan of Sergio Romo since his breakout season in the California League last year. His numbers from that year are, as the kids say: video game numbers. He struck out 104 hitters in 65.2 innings pitched. It was an impressive season. But, Romo never got much pub from prospect hounds because his arsenal of pitches was described as ‘average’. That’s code talk for: “He doesn’t have intimidating (read: goofy) facial hair and he doesn’t throw 95mph HEAT!”
Romo’s pitches all graded out as average across the board. Average fastball. Average slider. Average changeup. Average curveball. But, Romo had above average control and command of the strike zone. Letting him stick his pitches wherever he wanted them. Think of him as the anti-Zito. He also slings the ball and will mix up his arm angles, adding in an element of deception to his pitching style.
I think sometimes that when relievers come into the game, we want them to fit the reliever archetype. They must have an element of intimidation. This is often achieved through poor facial hair choices or goofy celebratory antics. And they must throw the heat. We all want heat. We’re a nation addicted to the radar gun. This is why Brian Wilson will probably have more fans than Segio Romo. He has that little soul patch and some tats. That’s a check for the facial hair. If and when he converts the save, he’ll drop down that goofy ‘X’ sign he makes when all the players are running onto the field. That’s a check for the antics. And Wilson throws in the mid-90′s, further adding to his appeal. Check, check, and check.
Romo is the opposite of the reliever archetype. He doesn’t have crazy facial hair. He doesn’t initiate celebratory flailing on the level of K-Rod when he strikes a guy out. He doesn’t give props to MMA — I’ll never understand why Wilson does that — via a series of wrestling moves when he throws a clean inning. And he probably won’t dance an Irish jib like Papelbon. On a good day his fastball might top 90mph. He’s almost boring.
Boring isn’t bad because he’s also been very good. He threw 3 innings of relief against the Dodgers and didn’t give up any runs. When was the last Giants reliever that threw 3 or more scoreless innings of relief in 2008? It’s only happened 4 times this year. Romo has done it twice. Most recently before yesterday on September the 2nd. Pat Misch did it in June and Keichii Yabu did it in May.
Here’s some plots from Romo’s relief appearance against LA yesterday.
| Pitch | # | Velocity | X-Break | Z-Break |
| Fastball | 24 | 88.7 | -10.35 | 6.48 |
| Slider | 5 | 77.4 | 7.58 | 3.85 |
| Curve | 4 | 74.7 | 8.99 | 0.26 |
First, the basics. Romo primarily threw his fastball in relief. Of 33 total pitches, 24 of them were fastballs. He’s getting great movement in on right-handed batters with his fastball. It’s moving, on average, 10.35 inches in on righties. That’s nearly 6 inches more horizontal movement than Tim Lincecum is getting in on righties with his heater. And Lincecum’s fastball has nice movement. So, despite some velo concerns about Romo coming out of the minors, an average of 88.7mph on his fastball, his movement looks to be very, very good. His slider and curveball are breaking 7-8 inches away from righties. Romo is a right-handed pitcher and his breaking stuff will move away from RHB’s. Neither his curve or his slider get tremendous vertical break but they move more along the horizontal axis.
Here’s the break plot, horizontal and vertical, on these pitches.
You can see how the fastball (green grouping) drastically moves in on RHB’s. The slider and curve might be having some crossover, but they are moving away from RHB’s. Only a couple of curves dropped below the negative markings on the vertical plane, indicating that his breaking pitches have more tilt than downward bite.
This is a plot that I was looking forward to doing. Romo will vary his release point depending on situation and this plot shows that. You can see where he dropped down a few times to sling two fastballs and one slider. Otherwise, his release point grouping looks pretty consistent. It’ll help Romo if he can mix his pitches when he drops down. That will help to keep hitters on their toes if they know that they could get more than one pitch from that angle instead of just a breaking ball over-and-over.
Our last plot is pitch location based on pitch-type. Romo threw his fastball in all sections of the strike zone. You can see that his control was as advertised. Everything was near, in, or around the strike zone. He worked his slider in the zone and his curve was more likely to be thrown outside of the zone. Romo threw 11 pitches to left-handed batters, all 11 of them were fastballs. Makes sense because the fastball will cut away from lefties. He threw all of his breaking pitches, the ones that move away from RHB’s, to right-handed hitters. Looks to be a good game plan to attack hitters. Kudos to Molina and Romo.
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A bunch of stuff to like about Romo. His control looks to be very good — he’s only walked 8 hitters in 31.1 innings pitched — and he’s getting some great horizontal movement on his heater. Romo should take over Tyler Walker’s 8th inning setup role in 2009 and if Brian Wilson is traded, injured, or inneffective, he could work his way into the closers role at some point. That is, if he’s not accidentally DFA’d by next year.
Only 89ish for his fastball? I seem to remember him dialing up to around 92 most of the time. Now I really think the gun there is rigged.
His top fastball on the day was 90.3mph. Sounds like the TV gun may have been 1-2mph hot.
re. the LA gun: Wilson hit 100 a coupla times, so it’s likely a hot gun.
That LA gun is so hot right now.
I like Romo too, when a pitcher can strike out so many with average talent, even if he lost a some moving up, it would still be very high. That’s why I like Misch.
According to my prospect book, Romo throws his FB in the 86-90 MPH range.
I saw Romo on the post-game wrap and, it was late so maybe I was blurry-eyed, but Sergio had some serious facial hair.
I don’t know if you know this, but Wilson does that X because of his Christian belief. That’s why I try not to make comments about people’s gestures after success in sports, you don’t always know the motivation behind it.
Partially true, I guess, but it’s also a sign for MMA.
>> Now, one of the main things I do after a game is the crossing of the arms. That’s on a T-shirt I wear underneath my jersey when I pitch. (He wore that T-shirt in an ESPN interview last month.) That’s just respecting the fighters and their commitment and determination and the hard work they put in.
It’s still goofy.
I think Romo has or had a mustache at some point. Not good closer / reliever facial hair.
ONE MROE ROUND!>!#@(~
/gets punched in the face repeatedly
It’s what Jesus would have wanted.
“ONE MROE ROUND!>!#@(~”
“/gets punched in the face repeatedly”
As far as I’m concerned, I post because I just want to set things straight in my head, whether it is me who was wrong or perhaps I can teach/share something that the other doesn’t know. I know I don’t know everything and sometimes I remember wrong – I’m still teased about the Jerome Williams mix-up at MCC and it still lives in jokes there even when I’m not involved; not that there’s anythign wrong with that, I love to laugh and laughing at myself is a frequent thing – so I just want to see if I got it right or not and either bring the debate further along or at least present the other side.
I don’t see where I’m being offensive with my comment above or anything, just expressing how I handle things without saying that someone’s else’s way is wrong. Maybe I’m not handling a situation correctly and I can learn something. Maybe I can teach something.
I tried to avoid the long explanation, but since I was questioned on it, I was taught growing up that you try to avoid religion in conversation, as there are people who can take offense. For me, growing up, if someone took offense with me, while I was relatively safe and infinitely safer than my parents when they were growing up, there was always the thought in the back of my head that it could cost me my life. So if that isn’t your situation, then perhaps this is not advice you would follow, but I didn’t tell you to follow it, I just presented it as something that I think about when I see such gestures. Perhaps the reader might think twice the next time this is pertinent to them (or perhaps not).
I thought this is a place where I can share info and debate the meaning of things. I stayed away regarding “the subject” after it got a bit hairy, but to me the whole point of blogging is the freedom for others to share their opposing view at the same spot, so that the POV there is not so homogeneous and one-sided. But if such comments are not welcomed here, just tell me.
“Partially true, I guess, but it’s also a sign for MMA. ”
Partially true? From my point of view, it is more true than not. Here is a link to the final post on this subject, you quoted from an outdated one when it was still a mystery: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs/2008/07/14/at-long-last-brian-wilson-reveals-the-meaning-behind-his-crossed-arms-gesture-after-he-saves-a-game/
True, there is that MMR reference in there and it is the genesis of the gesture, but much of the time of the explanation, he’s talking about Christ and how it affects him spiritually. He got it from MMR, but personalized it so that it relates to Christ and his teachings, and he spends most of his time explaining what it means to him spiritually. But just my opinion.
@OGC
Feel free to post your opinion on here as long as you want (that is as long as you follow the posting guidelines). This isn’t about religion at all, really. And I don’t think anyone thinks you are being offensive. But I know where his singal comes from and I know what it is, a MMA t-shirt.
The link you posted is the same one that I got my quote from. So it wasn’t outdated.
I don’t think anything got “hairy”. Listen, most of the time I’m extremely light hearted when it comes to posting on here. I think you’ve figured that out by now. When I’m not doing analysis, I’m probably joking around. So take some grains of salt!
I think it’s great for Brian that religion is so good for him, but I still think it’s goofy to be dropping X’s after you get a save. That’s my opinion.
The “/gets punched in the face repeatedly” is because I think MMA is stupid. That’s it.
Romo has been winning a lot of us over. It is refreshing to see a Giant relief pitcher who pitches–throws strikes, commands the corners, goes after hitters, etc. After Taschner’s debacle, Romo was inspiring. (Is the Special Agent done? That 3-walk performance was a coffin nail for me.) Great analysis as usual, Chris.
Thanks, Mark!
I think Taschner might be done, I’m not sure I see the point of him on a future Giants team. He’s going to turn 31-years-old next year and I think what we’ve seen from the Special Agent over the past few years is his absolute ceiling. The Giants should have moved him this year at the trading deadline — back when his ERA was under 4 — if they had any offer for him.
He walks too many hitters for my taste and he doesn’t have a favorable split against LHB’s. I’d rather see Hinshaw and Geno in the bullpen next year if the Giants want some left-handed relievers. Let Hinshaw pitch to RHB’s and LHB’s and let Geno take on the role of a LOOGY. Or, just pluck a free agent LHP out of the minor leagues and see if he can stick on the big league roster.