Beckett Injury PFX

So I've started working the pre-season camps for the College that I work at, hence why I've been a little delayed in getting a new article up. I want to cover Beckett's injury which I hypothesized about here last week. The fact that it is an elbow injury will lead everyone to believe that there will be some automatic control issue.

To cover our bases, the speed and vertical release point are essentially the same over the last month or two.


There's not much difference here at all. In fact, his end velocity might have increased some. Movement is another story though as seen by the chart below. His fastball and curveball are both much more straight. The curveball especially and this makes sense as he probably is experiencing pain when he tries to snap one off. It has really only happenned though very recently which leads me to believe that it's not a chronic condition like a chronic tear of the UCL of the elbow.

These next two charts are what happens with the pitch. First whether it's a ball,strike, or hit into play. The next one is a more detailed version.

Lately I would argue that his command is about average for him this year. He's not increasing in the % of balls thrown or even balls hit into play. He is giving up more hits recently though as the balls are hit harder than they were before.

This quick analysis leads me to believe one thing. The nerve issue is giving him problems and not control issues, therefore the ligament is healthy. He's not doing well because he can't get the same amount of movement on his pitches as he was before which makes him more likely to get hid hard, although not necessarily more often. He's due to pitch Friday but I would not be surprised to see him pushed back even farther which would only cause more angst among Sox fans.