Ricky Romero 1-Hitter Pitch F/X Breakdown

ricky-romero-no-hit-bid.jpg

Quick Recap: Last night Ricky Romero made his bid for a no-hitter. It fell apart in the 8th. Scumbag A.J. Pierzynski clowned the umps into awarding him a HBP and came around to score on the lone hit, an Alex Rios 2-run HR in the 8th via pitch that was one of the few pitches even remotely up. Romero walked 2 and struck-out 12 over 102 pitches in 8 IP.

Cool Stats to Start Things Off

  • Right out of the gate let’s throw out the book. “The most important pitch is baseball is strike one.” That usually holds true, however on this night Romero pitched only 46% first strikes (MLB Avg 58%).
  • Killer Instinct: 1-1 counts that became 1-2 = 78%
  • Backwards: Strike % of fastballs was only 57%. Overall fastball percentage just a tick above 50%
  • Simply put, his off-speed got the job done. White Sox hitters chased 55% of off-speed pitches. Ricky really worked his curve and change to both right & left-handed batters and also added in a slider to LHB.

    VS LHB

    Romero only faced 5 LHB last night and confused them with a mixture of four pitches.

    His mix: fastballs (55%), curves (18%), Sliders (14%) and changes (14%)

    Vs RHB

    Ricky’s best offering to RHB last night was his change-up. He threw it 25% of the time vs RHB. Amazingly the strike % for his change vs RHB was 80%. This resulted in many chases down, and down and away.

    His change was used as a set-down pitch, as we threw only one change to a RHB to start off a count. Otherwise he led off with 65% fastballs and 30% curves.

    One Hit Gem

    He kept the ball down and hitters guessing. That, along with some amazing strike and chase percentages from off-speed offerings (mainly the change) led to Romero throwing one of the best games in Toronto Blue Jays history.

    More from Matthias Koster
    2008 Willie Mays Hayes Award
    2008 Willie Mays Hayes Award Who won the 2008 Willie Mays Hayes...
    Read More
    6 replies on “Ricky Romero 1-Hitter Pitch F/X Breakdown”
      1. says: Kman

        On a chart it would be in the middle quad. (edit: added a box to the quad chart for HR location)

        Edit#2: conflicting data forced me to throw the zone chart out. Depending on the source Rios’ HR was high middle or up.

    1. says: Alain

      Oh wow I thought it was way up in 3. It was a beauty, will be forever left with the question of What if AJ douche didn’t get away with his little trot. Maybe Morrow should really plunk him tonight just so he has a bruise to go along with the phantom HBP.

      1. says: Kman

        Thanks for the comment.

        Human based pro scouting service has it middle (up portion of middle), while Brooks and my own excel Pitch F/X data have it definitely up (although on a standard strike zone that doesn’t move for height)

        1. says: Alain

          Fair enough, all int he eyes of the beholder, its a great graphic non the less, thanks for the right up.

    Comments are closed.