Question: What do you call a curveball that doesn't curve?
Answer: Adam Eaton's curveball.
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If you've ever been stuck at work during a big game or if you live out of the media market for your favorite team, then you know how indispensable MLB.com's Gameday can be, graphically displaying game situations, pitch locations, and running boxscores. If you can't be in front of a TV, Gameday suffices quite nicely, particularly if you can supplement with a radio signal.
Just as valuable is the information that can be mined behind the scenes of Gameday. Researchers are using the pitch break, location and velocity data can then analyze the approach batters take to pitchers and vice versa.
Below is a graphical display of the amount of vertical break by velocity of Adam Eaton's various pitches in 2007 followed by a graphic of the horizontal break by velocity of Eaton's pitches.
As you can see, Eaton's fastball actually has more movement to it than his curveball does. What's more, his curveball shows considerably more horizontal break than vertical break. Not a good combination. Curveballs should curve.
If you think about some of the observations broadcasters and fans had of Eaton during the 2007 season, then the flat curveball makes sense. For one, it seemed as if Eaton had difficulty finishing off batters once he got ahead of them in the count. This is probably because Eaton tended to throw more of these flat curveballs when he got to 0-1 and 0-2 on batters. Instead of breaking out of the zone as much as it should have, Eaton's curve would hang in the zone and get driven hard.
In order to throw a good curveball, a pitcher's mechanics have to be just right, the pitcher's arm motion must come "over the top". But when Eaton would struggle, commentators would observe that Eaton's arm angle would drop lower, causing a loss of movement on his pitches.
Unfortunately for Eaton and his 6+ ERA, it all sort of fits together doesn't it? Wait, there's more.
We also know that improper mechanics are correlated with injury. During the season, Eaton missed time -- mercifully -- with shoulder problems and word has come that in the offseason the discomfort has continued.
It's hard to know which comes first, the poor mechanics or the injury, but one thing looks pretty certain: if Eaton wants to be healthy and effective, he is going to have to fix his mechanics.
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Thanks go out to Josh Kalk and The Hardball Times for the use of the Pitch f/x data.
