Pitcher Analysis: Matt Garza (Part One)

by Kyle Boddy on Aug 21, 2008 9:03 AM PDT in Pitching Mechanics Comment 4 comments

Garza_medium

For the first major Pitcher Analysis on Driveline Mechanics, I've decided to choose one of my favorite pitchers, Matt Garza. I have always been a fan of Garza dating back to his days in the Twins' minor league system, in no small part due to his great k/bb ratios that he put up. Garza was consistently well above 3.0 k/bb ratio in the minors, with many years above 4.0, which is a great predictor of success.

Here are a few graphs from Fangraphs that indicate that Garza's k/bb ratio has been increasing and that his bb9 continues to decline, another great sign that he is continuing to progress while with the Rays:

Next, we'll look at the pitches he throws and the video breakdown of his mechanics...

By using Josh Kalk's (dixieflatline at Driveline Mechanics) 2008 PITCHf/x Player Cards, we can see that Matt Garza throws five pitches:

Type	Movement in x (in.)	Movement in z (in.)	Initial Speed (MPH)	Number Thrown	Percent	Versus RHB	Percent	Versus LHB	Percent
Fastball	-5.63	10.03	94.21	1115	64.68	557	65.45	558	63.92
Curve	2.75	-7.85	76.72	118	6.84	20	2.35	98	11.23
Slider	1.06	1.78	86.28	226	13.11	186	21.86	40	4.58
Change	-7.21	8.79	86.1	164	9.51	40	4.7	124	14.2
Splitter	-11.76	7.49	94.1	101	5.86	48	5.64	53	6.07

With an average initial velocity of 94.21 mph on his fastball, Garza is no soft-tossing righty - he can very accurately be called a "power pitcher." He mixes in two breaking balls and two offspeed pitches to keep hitters off balance, and will seemingly throw any of them during an at-bat, though he primarily lives off his plus fastball/slider combination to put hitters away:

	Fastball		Curve		Slider		Change		Splitter
Count	Total	Percent	Total	Percent	Total	Percent	Total	Percent	Total	Percent
0-0	335	74.12	15	3.32	42	9.29	39	8.63	21	4.65
0-1	111	54.95	26	12.87	32	15.84	23	11.39	10	4.95
0-2	53	54.08	12	12.24	28	28.57	3	3.06	2	2.04
1-0	153	78.06	1	0.51	6	3.06	26	13.27	10	5.1
1-1	108	59.02	18	9.84	24	13.11	23	12.57	10	5.46
1-2	66	46.81	20	14.18	41	29.08	7	4.96	7	4.96
2-0	47	66.2	0	0	1	1.41	15	21.13	8	11.27
2-1	79	69.91	2	1.77	4	3.54	16	14.16	12	10.62
2-2	59	46.83	18	14.29	36	28.57	6	4.76	7	5.56
3-0	23	92	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	8
3-1	38	84.44	0	0	0	0	2	4.44	5	11.11
3-2	43	59.72	6	8.33	12	16.67	4	5.56	7	9.72

As you can see by the bolded sections (2 strike counts), he attacks hitters with the hard stuff, unafraid to stick with his fastball to put hitters away, setting up his slider for strikeouts.

I like that Garza uses his off-speed pitches behind the count, continually going to his changeup and splitter in 2-0 and 2-1 counts, though he primarily throws his fastball. Pitching backwards is a great way to keep hitters off balance, and Garza seems to understand it.

Take a look at Garza's fastball/slider combination:

The time it takes to identify a pitch is noted by the stop at release point. You have just that much time to determine if it's going to be high and outside or low and away - and people wonder why it's a struggle to hit .300 in the big leagues!

Tomorrow, we'll analyze his pitching mechanics and see what's up with his radial nerve irritation problems.

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Comments

I was expecting a .gif of his nasty curve.

But I guess the slider works just as well.

by R.J. Anderson on Aug 21, 2008 9:23 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

That FB/SL side by side is utterly amazing

Interesting that he throws his CH so much to Lefties. I hadn’t noticed that to this point. He lost his cool a little bit last night in the 3rd otherwise another dominant start. Once he learns to feed off his emotions rather than let them detract from his ability he is going to be something special.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

by Sandy Kazmir on Aug 21, 2008 9:50 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

He's telegraphing the slider there

Slightly quicker ‘up’ tempo and that’s plenty for the video inclined MLB hitters to pick up. These guys are good, after all they have "just that much time to determine if it’s going to be high and outside or low and away" and manage to deal with it much of the time. Obviously it might have been just that one slider but that’s something to look at if I’m Matt Garza.

Felix Hernandez had a similar "problem" awhile back on his slider that was actually much more pronounced, and although I haven’t seen recently if it got fixed I’d imagine the way he’s pitched (despite being in front of that that flaming bus crash of a "defense") that it has been.

I also find it interesting how much more Garza falls off to the 1B side on the slider. Not sure exactly what that means without taking a closer look frame by frame but it’s interesting.

by nickmueller on Aug 21, 2008 10:54 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs