{"id":12139,"date":"2011-02-21T12:16:49","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T19:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=12139"},"modified":"2011-02-24T00:19:02","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T07:19:02","slug":"is-josh-beckett-tipping-his-pitches-to-the-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/21\/is-josh-beckett-tipping-his-pitches-to-the-yankees\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Josh Beckett tipping his pitches to the Yankees?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another View from the Lone Red Seat<\/em><\/p>\n

It looks like the Yankees have figured out Josh Beckett, so much so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tipping his pitches to them.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the last two seasons Josh Beckett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ERA versus the Yankees is a lofty 7.45.\u00c2\u00a0 He has pitched into or beyond the 7th<\/sup> inning only twice and has given up 17 home runs over his 10 Yankees starts since opening day in 2009.<\/p>\n

Josh Beckett has been one of the top front line pitchers in all of baseball since he burst onto the scene in 2003.\u00c2\u00a0 That season he helped the Florida Marlins defeat the Yankees in the World Series and was named Series MVP on the strength of his 1.10 ERA and complete game, 5-hit shutout which closed out the Yankees in Game 6.<\/p>\n

But over the last few years, the Yankees have hit Beckett hard.\u00c2\u00a0 Even going back to 2009 when Beckett was 17-6 with an ERA of 3.86, the Yankees had a great deal of success against him.\u00c2\u00a0 His ERA versus the Yankees in 2009 was almost a run and a half higher than his overall ERA coming in at 5.34.\u00c2\u00a0 To Beckett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s credit he threw two great starts at the Yanks that season, one in June where he went six strong innings surrendering only one hit in a Red Sox 7-0 victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Later that season he had a no decision in August where he threw 7 innings and gave up just 4 hits in a 2-0 loss.\u00c2\u00a0 But in his three other starts he went a combined 19 innings and gave up 29 hits, 19 runs, all earned and had an ERA of 9.00.\u00c2\u00a0 In those 3 games he gave up 8 home runs; almost 1\/3 of the total home runs he gave up over his 32 starts.\u00c2\u00a0 So in an otherwise dominant year for Beckett, his stats versus the Yankees were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
W<\/strong><\/td>\nL<\/strong><\/td>\nIP<\/strong><\/td>\nH<\/strong><\/td>\nR<\/strong><\/td>\nER<\/strong><\/td>\nERA<\/strong><\/td>\nBB<\/strong><\/td>\nSO<\/strong><\/td>\nHR<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n32<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n19<\/td>\n19<\/td>\n5.34<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n28<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Moving forward to 2010, a season in which Beckett was plagued by injuries and was perhaps his worst as a pro, he was 6-6 overall with career high ERA of 5.34.\u00c2\u00a0 As rough as last season was for him it was much worse versus the Yankees.\u00c2\u00a0 He had 5 of his 21 starts against the Yankees and in those 5 starts he went 26 innings giving up 40 hits, 31 runs, 29 earned and had an ERA of 10.03.\u00c2\u00a0 He also gave up 9 of his total 20 home runs to them.\u00c2\u00a0 Summarizing his season, those 5 starts represented 20% of his total innings pitched but 35% of the total earned runs he surrendered and 45% of the home runs he gave up.\u00c2\u00a0 If you subtract the Yankee games out of his ERA it would drop by over a run per game, going from 5.78 down to 4.69.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is Beckett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line versus the Yankees in 2010:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
W<\/strong><\/td>\nL<\/strong><\/td>\nIP<\/strong><\/td>\nH<\/strong><\/td>\nR<\/strong><\/td>\nER<\/strong><\/td>\nERA<\/strong><\/td>\nBB<\/strong><\/td>\nSO<\/strong><\/td>\nHR<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n26<\/td>\n40<\/td>\n31<\/td>\n29<\/td>\n10.03<\/td>\n13<\/td>\n26<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So the Yankees’ propensity to knock Beckett around would either be a sign of greater focus against him or perhaps that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve picked up something in his delivery that tips his pitches.\u00c2\u00a0 On opening day last year he gave up back-to-back home runs to Posada and Granderson in the second inning.\u00c2\u00a0 In his September start he gave up 4 home runs in 6 2\/3 innings with another set of back-to-back home runs to Teixeira and A-Rod in the 6th<\/sup> inning.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 In 2009 he gave up 5 home runs in his August 23rd<\/sup> loss.<\/p>\n

So the question is, is it just an issue with Beckett or have the Bronx Bombers turned other top pitchers into a less than average hurler?\u00c2\u00a0 I took a look at the top AL Cy Young Award vote-getters over the last 2-3 seasons to see how they fared.\u00c2\u00a0 Starting with the 2010 Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez, in a season where his record was barely better than .500 at 13-12, he was 3-0 versus the Yankees with a 0.35 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 During Roy Halladay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last season with the Jays in 2009 he was 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA, which was lower than his overall ERA of 2.79.\u00c2\u00a0 Beckett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teammate Jon Lester was also 3-0 versus the Yankees last season with an ERA of 2.13.\u00c2\u00a0 Cliff Lee was 2-0 with an ERA of 3.09 in the regular season and Rays sensation David Price was 2-1 with an ERA of 4.39.\u00c2\u00a0 So Beckett gave up more runs to the Yankees last season than King Felix, David Price, Jon Lester and Cliff Lee combined in 75 1\/3 fewer innings.\u00c2\u00a0 Overall those four were 10-1 with an ERA of 2.49 during 2010 when facing the Yankees.\u00c2\u00a0 Zach Greinke has avoided the Yanks the last two seasons, somehow, but in 2008 he was 1-1 with a 1.83 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 Justin Verlander was third in the Cy Young voting in 2009 and was 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 This may not be conclusive evidence that the Yankees have picked up something in Beckett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s delivery but it certainly puts me on that path.<\/p>\n

To my semi-trained eye I was able to call about 50% of his pitches last season.\u00c2\u00a0 I was watching the speed and hesitation prior to his release and could frequently predict when a fast ball was about to come.\u00c2\u00a0 I could see the absence of that hesitation when a curve or off speed pitch was called.\u00c2\u00a0 If I can see it, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure the Yankees are way ahead of me.\u00c2\u00a0 If he is going to get back to being a top-of-the-rotation, dominant pitcher he needs to get back to a consistent delivery and arm speed that does not give the batter an idea of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to come.\u00c2\u00a0 It will also go a long way towards making the Sox World Series contenders this year.\u00c2\u00a0 To paraphrase my partner Dave Rattigan, the Sox are going to trot out the same five pitchers this year as they did last year.\u00c2\u00a0 They are going to need better performances from Beckett, Lackey and Dice-K in order to bring home their third World Series trophy in seven seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 A major factor is going to be Beckett and his ability to keep the Yankees and every other team from knowing what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming before he releases the ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another View from the Lone Red Seat It looks like the Yankees have figured out Josh Beckett, so much so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tipping his pitches to them.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the last two seasons Josh Beckett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ERA versus the Yankees is a lofty 7.45.\u00c2\u00a0 He has pitched into or beyond the 7th inning only twice and has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4235,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-top-stories","category-statistical-analysis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}