This is the third part of a series on how to evaluate baseball pitchers. Jordan Barhorst will pick up the series from here, connecting this stuff to the Reds.
In the first two parts, we examined metrics based on the outcome of pitched balls. Today, we’ll look at whether we can judge pitchers based on the innate qualities of individual pitches.
The pitcher’s “arsenal” consists of the attributes of the pitches he throws, such as the pitch type, pitch velocity, vertical and horizontal movement of the pitch, the ball’s spin rate and the pitch’s location in the strike zone.