Does Brandon Beachy Throw a Cutter? (With Quote From Brandon)
April 23, 2012 at 2:01 pm by Ben Duronio under PITCHf/x
No.
This is a pretty common misconception, and pretty much every article I read previewing the Braves says that he does throw a cutter. PITCHf/x picks up some of his four-seam fastballs as cutters, but this is simply the system miscategorizing the pitch. This could be a reason why his fastball is so good, that it does have cut-fastball tendencies, but he does not throw both pitches.
To explain, BIS and Brooks Baseball do not label Beachy with any cut-fastballs in his career. PITCHF/X tracked on Texas Leaguers and FanGraphs, however, has about 10% of his career pitches as cutters, with 22% of his pitches this year being of the cut-fastball variety. Don’t be fooled, it’s his four-seam fastball.
In looking at the speed of the two pitches, they are very close together. I do not know one starter who throws a cut-fastball faster than his four-seamer, yet this year PITCHf/x has his cutter at 91.3 mph and his four-seamer at 90.2 mph. For his career, his four-seamer is 91.7 mph and his cutter at 91.3 mph. There is usually a pretty decent drop off to a cutter from a four-seamer, yet there is virtually none when it comes to Beachy’s pitches.
Above is every pitch that Beachy has thrown in the majors. You can see the movement between the fastball and cutter is nearly identical, with the cutter having slightly less tail. The system reads his fastballs that tail less as cutters rather than just fastballs. He has a four-seamer that has tendencies of a cutter, but it is still the same pitch. Below is a look at Dan Haren, who has many different variations of his fastball. I only took Haren’s pitches for this year, since his career has been very long and looking at each pitch would create a lot of noise — he has also altered his repertoire.
As you can see, there is a pretty distinct difference between his cut-fastball and his four-seamer. His cutter drops and moves much more than his four-seam does. This is an instance where there are two different pitches, and it is clear that there are two. I can see why the system gets confused with Beachy, but it should be noted that the system is often wrong. The crew at Brooks Baseball has manually detailed each pitch and concluded that there is simply just a four-seamer. In watching Beachy, I never recall once seeing a cut-fastball. I have dug through google and searched to see any quote from Beachy saying that he throws a cutter and have come up with nothing. If you know of any time he stated this and can link me to the quote, I would greatly appreciate it. But from what I gather through the data, there is no cutter.
EDIT: Quote from Beachy on twitter:
Debate settled, though it is interesting that he throws an occasional two-seamer. Also, twitter is awesome.
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Maybe Beachy’s cutter isn’t that great of one? There seems to be some movement… so why isn’t that enough to be his version of the cutter?
Because he doesn’t throw one. If he threw a bad cutter, I’d make note of it, but it’s a pretty big misconception that he throws one at all. It’s just a very straight fastball. Most cutters look straight due to the natural tail that comes from those pitches, so the slight inward movement to left-handed hitters leaves the ball near the starting axis.
Is this mis-labeling of Beachy’s fastballs as cutters the reason he is on the Rotograph’s list of pitchers whose velocity has declined? It looks like that if you classify all those cutters as fastballs, then his fastball velocity is pretty much where it was two years ago.
Probably, yep. Same issue with Hanson’s decline. He’s throwing slower, but his two-seamer is partially the reason for that, and PITCHf/x isn’t picking it up. I don’t blame them, as they are going with the data they are given. PITCHf/x system is the one in the wrong here.
On a FanGraphs post about pitchers losing velocity (linked earlier today), they were using pitch fx data, right? How does their categorization (or miscategorization I guess) of his fastball/cutters factor in?
“Brandon Beachy‘s last two starts featured average fastball velocities below any start he had last season… I don’t think the velocity drop here is that big of a deal though since he averaged 91.1 in 2010, so this shouldn’t raise concerns of a possible injury. But, he was extremely unlikely to post another 10.0+ strikeout rate again, and this velocity decline won’t help matters any.”
Is that blurb based on an accurate interpretation of his pitches?
After the April 9th start Beachy said “It was a struggle to feel for any of (the pitches), I was able to get through the first couple of innings on the fastball alone, but you’re not going to get guys out for very long when you can only throw strikes with a four-seam fastball.”
If you look at the pitchFX for that start and still see a lot of cutters, chances are he only has a 4seam with a lot of cutting action.
Is Beachy on the Twitter? If so, somebody ask him what he throws.
He is.
Any chance Brandon may be spinning this one? mind games?
Tweet sent
I also sent one, we’ll see if he gets back to us.
Wow that was fast, good job
I’m an ideas man. It’s what I do.
You’re welcome.
In response to Beachy’s tweet, any idea why the two seam fb isn’t showing up?
Could that possibly account for the velocity drop like with Hanson?
I think it’s just extremely occasional and likely not much different at all from his four-seamer. Probably a few of the ones with most tail are two-seamers, but it’s not like it’s a regular pitch of his.
Just saw that Jurrjens is being optioned to AAA. Hopefully that’ll give him a chance to work on his stuff and give Delgado more time to shine since he’s earned his spot in the rotation.
I’ve been looking at these graphs for a while now and while i fully understand how to read them, i’m having trouble with the key. What are the pitches labeled FF, FC, FS, and FT. I believe they are all different types of fastballs, but what type?
FF = Fastball (Four-seam)
FC = Fastball (Cutter)
FS = not sure, maybe Fastball (Sinker)?
FT = Fastball (Two-seam)
Thanks for the help Luke, its much appreciated.