David Price’s final-line might not be something to write home about; it seemed like just another quality start. It was against the Yankees, but 3 ER and a 1.30 WHIP over 7 and 2/3 isn’t a spectacular performance even with 7 strikeouts.
However, if you lop off the eighth inning when Price was noticeably fatigued, you’ve got yourself something to write home about: 7IP, 5 Hits, 2BB, 2 ER and 7 Strike-Outs.
Price has never been one to shy away from a challenge and his velocity surely reflected his eagerness coming into the Yankees game. Early in the game, Price’s fastball was jumping out of his hand, hitting between 96 and 97mph during the first 50 pitches of the game. Price then settled in and worked around 95mph for the remainder of the game until the final inning.
Price worked with a pitch distribution similar to previous years, but both fastballs had a noticeable velocity spike. Price’s fastball velocity was reminiscent of his playoff dominance of two years ago when he acted primarily as a reliever. Rather than the 93mph 4-seam and 88mph 2-seam of 2009, Price was dealing 95 and 91 mph heat, respectively.
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Using the data from Brooks Baseball, it’s clear to see the contrast between David Price’s velocity during his last start of 2009 and his first start of 2010, both against the Bronx Bombers.
Furthermore, the movement of all Price’s pitches seems to have taken a leap forward. Price had everything working last night and Joe Girardi wasn’t hesitant to praise Price’s curveball: “He threw the ball extremely well, his command of his fastball was really good and his curveball was excellent.”
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The colored dots represent Price’s start last night, while the cubes represent his last start of 2009. As you can see, other than the superior grouping of off-speed pitches that allowed MLB Game Day to differentiate between his slider and curveball, Price was simply getting more movement.
The slider (orange) is getting slightly more movement on the horizontal plane, but the vertical dip has suffered a little bit. Price will still be sitting around his standard 4ish range on the Y-Axis, which isn’t concerning.
Price’s 4-seamer has straightened out a bit, and there’s a bit of an anomaly to the left. Without looking at the contrasting velocity charts, I’m sure it’s just a matter of him ramping it up from time to time.
Essentially, Price is throwing harder and throwing independent sliders and curves rather than just working with a “slurve.”
When I see numbers like this, I can’t in my right mind say anything other than, “Buy, Buy, Buy!”
