Josh Beckett 6/4/08 Analysis

Beckett appears to be in line for the win as I type this in the top of the 9th. Let's break down his Pitch F/X data to help explain how he succeeded tonight. Dan Brooks at Brooksbaseball.net has been kind enough to let me use his graphs while I get my charting program up and running.

Beckett mixed everything up quite well and he ended up getting the win tonight when Red Sox Nation is still trying to come to grips with the loss of Ortiz for at least 1 month.




He changed his speeds effectively, keeping the hitters off balance most of the night. This is one of the keys to pitching and any pitching coach worth his salt will explain that changing speeds and hitting your spots are essential to succeed. He had very good command of his pitches, especially his fastball tonight. Looking at the two pitch location charts, nobody was touching the high and outside fastballs in the zone from the right handed batter view. His release point was excellent, nice compact and circular in nature.

Lastly, looking at his movement in the detailed view, you can see that basically all the balls that were hit into play were on his fastballs. All of them (save 2 of them) that were hit were 2.0 and 2.75 and all of the balls that were hit were fastballs except 1 curveball. That to me shows that his curveball was amazing this night and his fastball movement was just ok with the exception of the high/outside pitch.