Quick and dirty, here’s his release points from tonight (thanks to Brooks Baseball as always for the easy to grab Pitch f/x info).
Chien-Ming Wang's release points, 05-27
Compare to his last start. It moved a little bit horizontally and down just a tad. It seems to very slowly be getting back to where it was vertically Pre May 2008 (or I could be just hopefully projecting based on tiny sample sizes–but I will be an optimist for once). Horizontally it is still very different from old Wang.
And the movement comparison:
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May 29th, 2009
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| Pitch Type | Average Speed | Max Speed | Average H-Break | Average V-Break | Number Thrown | Strike Percentage |
| Fastball | 91.38 | 92 | -8.28 | 6.05 | 13 | 92.31 |
| Sinker | 90.51 | 91.3 | -8.91 | 6.24 | 10 | 60.00 |
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May 22nd, 2009
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| Pitch Type | Average Speed | Max Speed | Average H-Break | Average V-Break | Number Thrown | Strike Percentage |
| Fastball | 92.61 | 95 | -9.63 | 6.90 | 39 | 58.97 |
| Sinker | 91.30 | 91.7 | -11.22 | 6.78 | 5 | 60.00 |
So between the two starts, he was throwing a bit softer tonight but got a slightly (like half an inch to an inch) better vertical break on the pitch. It did lose quite a bit of the horizontal movement.
Here’s an example from one of his best (groundball related) starts for even more comparison:
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June 10th, 2008
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| Pitch Type | Average Speed | Max Speed | Average H-Break | Average V-Break | Number Thrown | Strike Percentage |
| Fastball | 90.25 | 92.9 | -9.50 | 4.95 | 74 | 59.46 |
The vertical break doesn’t compare to what he was getting when he made even the strongest men groundout weakly.
And for the ultimate comparison, here’s one from a disaster start this season:
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April 13th, 2009
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| Pitch Type | Average Speed | Max Speed | Average H-Break | Average V-Break | Number Thrown | Strike Percentage |
| Fastball | 90.62 | 91.7 | -7.94 | 7.26 | 26 | 53.85 |
| Sinker | 90.05 | 91.5 | -9.66 | 6.51 | 22 | 63.64 |
So it is, in fact, sinking a bit more now than in the extremely bad times. And he’s throwing it a tad faster. Baby steps, extremely small sample sizes and all that but still it’s somewhat encouraging. I just wish he could be doing this in AAA at his own pace rather than MLB when the team can afford to sneak him in and maybe even throwing more than 20-40 pitches at a time.
Could you explain
what does the horizontal release point measure?
The horizontal release point looks at how close the pitcher’s arm is to first/third (depending on if they are a lefty or a righty) when they release the ball. This doesn’t have as much to do with arm slot as the vertical release, but shows he might have moved closer to first base than he used to when pitching. So what last night’s release point shows us is that he was throwing lower and more over the top than to the side.
His pitches used to break a lot more vertically and horizontally (and he needs both to survive) and it seems like this may have been caused by the raised vertical release point. So in his game against the Phillies, the horizontal break was there and the vertical was ok. Last night, the vertical break was better but the horizontal break took a step back.
Basically, it seems to me like he is slowly getting back to where he needs to but I don’t know if he’ll get to do it the way things are set up now.
You should check out the analysis they do at riveraveblues.com it is much better than my quick hits.
Thank you for the explanation