Seattle Sports Insider

Blake Beavan's Sneaky Fastball ... a Reverse Changeup?

Posted by

4/11/12

..............

Terry McDermott sez,

Watched the game, looked at the charts, at the f/x data and have no idea how Bleavan does it. His fastball isn't actually straight - it has a bit more than average armside movement - but, sheesh, it ain't that great. And hitters sitting red were BEHIND?
He must get some gain from his size - the guy is a beast of a man. He appears to have little deception but gains time from his size. So maybe that marks up his velocity a click or two, in which case you're looking at a located 94. Plenty of very good MLB pitchers have made a career with less.
I guess.

=== Comparables ===

Bartolo Colon, since 2006 and even earlier, has used a 90-92 MPH "deceptive" fastball and nothing else. It ain't about movement for him -- it's a hilariously short-arm fastball from behind his ear. He throws it 80% or more of the time and it's all he needs.

Odd to think about it this way, but on April 10th, 2012, Blake Beavan threw a Bartolo Colon game.

............

Yep, there have been a certain number of pitchers whose fastballs were SO effective, that they just stuck with the heaters. And some of them have been low-90's fastballs.

Like Neyer and James said, after cataloguing every MLB pitcher in history: a starter needs

Three normal pitches, OR
Two excellent pitches, OR
One great pitch.

That's the fact, Jack, notwithstanding the one-size-fits-all "Where's Paxton's Changeup?" mantra that drives Dr. D up the wall.

=== David Letterman Dept. ===

Top three explanations for a "sneaky fastball."

................

1. A pitcher is getting extra extension (in front of the mound) that you noted, Terry.

5'10" in front of the rubber is average ... Felix gets 6' 8" ... some guys get over 7'. This can equate to an "apparent" extra 6-7 (!!) miles per hour, as noted in this BP article. Mark Reynolds says there, "Some guys are 95 and it looks like 85." Ian Snell, Gil Meche.

I am dying to know what Beavan's release point is, in front of the mound. Anybody know where you can find this info for Beavan?

.............

2. Deceptive motion ... short arm, or high front side, or easy velo (true with BB), or whatnot. Beavan's body and shoulder turn look like 87.

As we all know, Beavan used to throw 95-99, and now he uses a stripped-down motion to fling 91 with no effort. The hitters are evidently reacting instinctively to a BODY movement that says 87 MPH.

A "reverse changeup." :- ) With a normal changeup, the arm action does not match the followup flight of the ball. The disconnect will reliably cause weird reactions in the hitters.

.............

3. RPM, late life, a ball that declerates less than other balls.

.............

He may have a little of all three. I have an inkling for the "reverse changeup" concept. But whatever the case, it is safe to say that Blake Beavan's "apparent velocity" or "effective velocity" is considerably more than what the radar gun shows.

You don't have to hesitate about that one. Blake Beavan obviously has more game velocity than gun velocity. That's a given, from where I sit.

=== Quid Pro Quo, Dept. ===

Nobody sustains success on 3 strikeouts a game. Blake Beavan is at 3.9 for his ML career and he is not a groundball pitcher. Don't book his All-Star Game airfare.

............

That's not to bury him, either. His swinging strike % is fine right now. And Doug Fister went from 4% swinging strikes, the whole 2010 season, to being an overwhelming pitcher.

Beavan's SwStr% of 8 percent, so far this "year," is 8.0%. Doug Fister's has never hit 8. These guys gets lots of called strikes, and they're moving targets. The strikeout rate is not the end of the story here.

But let's don't forget that Beavan's K rate must rise for him to make 150 starts in the big leagues. He ain't a TOR yet, b'wana.

=== Peanut Gallery ===

It's a funny thing. It's like MOST of our MC/SSI audience will watch that game and go, "Wow, the Rangers are behind a 91 fastball. And here it is a fastball count. I wonder why they're behind."

Baseball watching has come a long ways since the 1970's, hain't it Terry?

BABVA,

Dr D

Comments

Extension

Jeff, the extra extension in the release of the pitch towards home plate has different terms but I like some who call it, "Virtual or Visual Velocity." The equation I usually see (warning I am tired if this is wrong) is for each foot released closer to home is worth 3 mph to the pitch. That is one reason Greg Maddux could keep hitters from sitting back.
Can you imagine Randy Johnson with his body letting go about a 1/3 of the way to home plate (okay...slight exaggeration)? Sneaky fast with movement is better than fast without!
Great comeback I see tonight!
Again, fun reading your comments!

Modern Times

Indeed, Doc, watching the game today is so different it's almost not the same game. And it's better, too. The data, the video, the huge influx of new writing add dimensions we could never even glimpse before.
But what's this 70s thing of which you speak? What about the 60s? Or, ahem, the 50s when we were wee pups, but still . . .
I think you could calculate (or at least estimate) a release point if you had side-angle video

A couple quick questions...

1.) What makes Colby Lewis' mushy fastball so effective? Similar to the question about Beaven except Lewis' fastball is much WORSE than beavens, 86-87 all night long right down the middle or at the top of the zone (at least according to gameday) and the M's couldn't do anything with it! Just foul after foul after popup after popup. My usual want is to say, yeah well that the Mariners for ya. But no not this year, these youngin's can hit and Colby Lewis is the Rangers OPENING DAY STARTER so it isn't like other teams are bashing his head in. What gives with Colby's FB?
2.) If Beaven really does have 95-97 mph in his arm why doesn't he ever use it? I understand using the 92 with location pitch as his main weapon, but just like you go to the curve in the dirt with 2 strikes on a hitter looking for a fishing swing, why not pump a 97 mph fastball, even down the pipe, a handful of times a game? It would be an even more extreme "reverse change up" for him. Imagine if you are Ian Kinsler or whoever and for 2.5 abs all you have seen from a guy is 91-92 located, an ok curve ball and here you are AB #3 2-2 count and BAM 97mph down the pipe. It will either freeze him for a called third strike or he will swing super late for a swinging strike 3 or at best maybe he gets some wood on it and fouls it off or pops it up. Seriously if Beaven has that weapon in dry lock, why not break it out 5-8 times a game???

Can't explain Lewis, but...

As for #2: Beavan does NOT have a 97 mph fastball. He HAD one, as a teen, with mechanics so horrific the Rangers immediately changed them and lopped 6 mph off his heat in the process. Lemme see if I can track down video of his high school motion.
Beavan could have been a closer with a timebomb on his arm, and the Rangers instead turned him into a #5 starter. They were hoping he'd get more velocity back as he aged - and he's gotten a little. He's been more 89-92 for us - he was throwing 87-90ish a couple years ago.
If he loses those mph he's a meatball, so here's praying for this version of Blake to stick around, I guess. But that 96 is not coming back.
~G

Because he doesn't.

He can't throw that hard anymore...he used to throw that hard, but you can't just suddenly throw 96 if you're prqacticing nothing but throwing 92. It takes a totally different type of mechanics to produce that velo and if he changed his mechanics to buzz someone with the high velo he would either:
a) telegraph the hard ones really REALLY badly or
b) hurt himself or
c) really REALLY hurt himself or
d) throw the pitch to the backstop...while hurting himself
You feel me? :)

Working ahead

If a pitcher continually works ahead in the count but doesn't "waste" a pitch (a 58 ft curve or slider 10 inches outside) when ahead 0-2 or 1-2 you're giving the batter a whole lot to think about....and probably keeping them off balance.
Off balance hitters fall prey to superior location.
Most guys who can't strike you out nibble. Nibblers are by-in-large defensive pitchers.
Beavan (and Fister/Colon) challenge you with their best stuff.
Corey Pavin or Lee Trevino played golf a whole lot different than John Daly. They were shortish hitters but that doesn't mean they were nibblers. They attacked golf courses, winning with their wedges, not their drivers. Their attack was of a different kind, but highly effective.
Beavan's attack is different, but works.
moe

Ah, cool

That makes sense.
I guess being a a guy that never actually played baseball competitively and just plays softball or tosses the baseball in the back yard with friends it is outside of my realm of experience that:
A.) mechanics can really make that large of a mph difference (I guess I figured if your arm muscles can throw it 95 then they can throw it 95, but I can see how that would be wrong now with rotation, leg drive and all that being a big part of it too)
B.) that ones mechanics could be so bad that even 5-8 throws with them a game might be enough to shred one's arm.
Thanks for the learin'!

Pitching backwards

Doc commented on it kinda, he threw 5 curve balls to Jaso when he hit the triple. You get so used to reacting to the big slow curve, it's suddenly hard to catch up to 87

Calculating release points

Here's a link: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9561

Rangers made a rare mistake

Rangers made a rare mistake by changing Beavan's arm slot on the fastball. There as no reason for it.

Care to expand at all amigo?

Checking the youtube, he did used to finish more straight down; now he seems to finish across, with different clearance and decel. Maybe the Rangers got nervous about the abrupt decel, but if it cost him 7 MPH that's a shame ...
Can you elaborate a bit? thx -