Wil Myers' Plate Discipline

Overall, through 96 plate appearances, Wil Myers, the big piece in the James Shields trade with the Royals, has a 119.7 OPS + (using Baseball America's park factors of just his home park versus league average) in AAA. The Rays are apparently keeping him down for financial and player control issues (so that he may avoid gaining "Super 2" status for an extra year), as Myers could probably help the Rays offense right now. However, after watching a lot of Myers over the past couple of seasons, I've always thought the thing that he needs work on offensively is his plate discipline. In fact, at times it has looked bad enough that I have wondered whether or not he can be a consistent contributor at the big league level.


According to Minor League Central's gathering of GameDay data, Myers is seeing 3.85 pitches per plate appearance so far this season, right at league average of 3.86. He is seeing strikes a little less than league average, as you would expect (60.3 % versus 61.9 %). He is responding to this by swinging less than average (41.6 % versus 45.1 %), also below average at swinging at pitches outside the zone and inside the zone), but he is also making much less contact than average (67.1 % versus 76.3 %). His strikeout, walk, and groundball ratios are all well above league average (he also has a .434 BABIP, inflating his numbers).

I wanted to get a little bit of a further look at Myers, so I decided to chart his International League at-bats so far. I only looked at home games because no one else (except Lehigh Valley where he hasn't played yet) has a constant broadcast gun for most games. I obviously didn't include the ones that didn't. I also didn't include the intentional walk. Overall it is 176 pitches, not a large sample size, but an okay data set. Obviously it is somewhat selective, but we have to work with what we can in the minor leagues. If you want, you can view the spreadsheet here.

I classified the pitches as simply as I could, and here is how Myers was pitched in the sample:

Offspeed: Changes, Splitters, etc. 27 total
Breaking: Sliders, Curves, etc. 57 total
Fastballs: 4-seam, 2-seam, cutters, etc. 92 total

Obviously some of these classifications are going to be wrong, especially since I am not familiar with every pitcher. For example, some sidearmers were throwing 84-85 MPH. Is that their fastball or their offspeed pitch? Sometimes it was hard to tell. Also, when you aren't familiar with them, you might confuse a breaking pitch with an offspeed pitch.

Myers saw 11 fastballs at 95 MPH to 97 MPH (that's the hardest he saw), but he swung at just two of them, fouling one off and whiffing at one. This obviously doesn't us much. Myers had 18 whiffs, which is about average, a little over 10 percent of the time.

Here are his whiff locations by chart:

He was missing more pitches low and away than any other pitch, but I think we will see why that is below.

The two homers Myers hit were on pitches I classified as fastballs, but at 84 MPH (a lefty sidearmer) and 87 MPH. One was on the middle of the plate, and the other one was low and away.

The breaking pitches were strikes 61.4 % of the time. Considering breaking pitches usually aren't thrown for strikes that much, it suggests that he is probably chasing a lot. This was the pitch he swung and missed at the most, but he did at least put 6 of them into play. He put 4 offspeed pitches in play, whiffing on just 3.

I broke down pitch locations really simple (because when you are watching the game and stringing them yourself, they are going to be inexact), but Myers saw just 53 pitches that were in the middle of the plate or up. He hit 3 for flyballs, one for a line drive and one for a grounder. He whiffed at 5 of them, meaning on pitches up, he doesn't really whiff less, but probably makes a little more contact. Pitchers in the International League obviously seem scared to throw it up to Myers probably based on his reputation as a power hitter. Low and away (72 pitches) was obviously the place Myers was pitched the most. He hit 5 flyballs and 5 grounders, showing that he can make contact on these pitches, only whiffing at 6 of them. This appears to be a Myers strength zone, meaning he has good plate coverage and probably should be pitched inside more. He also held his own on low middle pitches, but swung at just 4 low and in pitches, fouling off 3 and whiffing at one, putting none in play.

Something should be said about the quality of competition he is facing. That is one of the reasons I put the velocity of the pitches as well. The average fastball he saw, relievers and starters, was 90.27 MPH, which is about a MPH and a half slower than the average big league fastball (relievers and starters combined had an average fastball of 91.7 MPH in 2012). This actually isn't bad, but Myers didn't do extremely well with fastballs 91 MPH or over, whiffing at 5 of the 45, and putting 4 of them in play. On the other hand, he saw 45 fastballs that were under 91 MPH (not counting the two 84 MPH fastballs, a convenient split, with both being equal). From my count, he made contact with 9 of these, whiffing at just one.

So overall, I found some things I didn't expect. He had a huge fastball velocity split, hitting soft fastballs easily, and much less effective against average to plus fastballs. Obviously you would like to see him get more plus fastballs so we can get a better determination of whether this is "real". Myers actually handled breaking balls and pitchers going away better than I expected in our sample. 

Diagnosing Cody Buckel

Cody Buckel is a good prospect. Nearly two years ago, FanGraphs' Mike Newman noted his advanced tools, saying "in terms of sheer “pitchability”, Cody Buckel is the best I’ve seen at the South Atlantic League level". Marc Hulet ranked him as the 7th best Texas Rangers' prospect going into 2013, saying "He uses a four-pitch repertoire to disrupt hitters’ timing and he moves the ball around the plate". Baseball America said he had the best control in the Rangers' system in 2011 and ranked him as the 8th best prospect in the system before the season. However, Buckel has been a Dellin Betances meltdown machine statistically so far in 2013 (and just as painful to watch).

According to Lone Star Dugout's Jason Cole (on the Frisco Roughrider's broadcast), at least some of his problems stem from "arm drag" (that is, the arm is behind the body, as his body has already committed and his arm is still "coming through") and that is causing him to miss a lot armside with his fastball. The velocity is not down according to Cole and others, which we wouldn't necessarily expect it to be down anyway, because his problem is throwing strikes, not getting hit (though if it were down, we would certainly wonder about whether or not he was healthy).

Tepid Participation of Lone Star Ball has talked to scouts that believe the problem is mental. They believe that these mental problems (whatever they are) are causing mechanical problems. We can't (or I can't, with absolutely no psychological training) measure "mental problems", so let's take a look at Buckel's mechanics through screenshots. Since he was successful at the end of 2012, I picked a game from August 13th and compared it to his meltdown on April 27th 2013.

The 2012 outing is the top (bad quality is just because the feed), the 2013 is the bottom:

Leg kick is the same:

The release point:

I don't see the arm drag that Cole is talking about, at least not in a way that wasn't present when he was going really well in 2012 (his posture is certainly not good, but to make the argument that this is the problem, you have to argue that his success was fluky). The head even looks like it is in the same place.

We do have Pitch F/X outings from Buckel's 2013 spring training. It is hard to see any kind of mechanical problem with that data, as he was extremely consistent in repeating his delivery, with a .078 horizontal standard deviation and .07 vertical standard deviation. When I gathered a full turn through the rotation for all the MLB teams a week ago, no one had this consistent of a delivery. The fact that he was throwing short outings in spring training helps, but he was repeating his delivery well, and clearly wasn't a mess, something the screenshots support. Here is his release point from spring training in graph form:

As we can see, very consistent, but also bizarre. As we see in (all of) the screenshots, Buckel is right-handed, yet stands on the very first base side of the rubber. This gives the impression, when looking at the chart, that he is a short pitcher that comes right over the top. Looking at our starting pitcher release points, the only one that is even close is Justin Germano, who has almost exactly the same horizontal release point, but releases the ball about two and a half inches higher than Buckel. Here is a screenshot of Germano, compare him to Buckel:

As you can see, there are similarities, but for one, Germano is a little more upright than Buckel, and yet comes out a little more with his arm. It needs to be said that Germano is a journeyman, pitching for 5 different MLB teams (and probably his 6th soon, with the Blue Jays), and in both Korea and Japan. However, he doesn't throw as hard as Buckel either, averaging about 88 MPH on his fastball, while Buckel's fastball is closer to MLB average. So when Buckel is right, he has a much higher ceiling than Germano, but he may inherit some of Germano's good aspects as well. Germano has had good command in the Majors (7.3 BB %, 62.6 strike percentage), and has had reverse splits (via FIP and wOBA), most likely because of where he stands on the rubber. This basic Pitch F/X data says that Buckel is not only a good prospect, but has the consistency to pitch in the Majors already. However, he is clearly not, and closer to being sent to Arizona for more Spring Training than the big leagues.

It is unlikely that Pitch F/X would pick up "arm drag", at least not in release point consistency, but we can look at the (small sample size) strike zone Buckel had in spring training:

This is from the catcher's perspective, so we see that there is a heavy dose of armside pitches that miss, and miss a lot. He also has a lot of pitches up and not many down, which I've seen in some scouting reports as being a problem with Buckel, but is probably not part of the problem he is having now.

So the problem sure looks mechanical, but I just don't see it when I am actually watching Buckel and looking at the screenshots of his delivery. If the problem is mechanical, I don't see how he succeeded last year, at the same level, throwing strikes. I doubt it is armspeed, as his velocity is reportedly fine (and was solid in spring training). Perhaps it is mental, but I am not sure how one would measure, prove, or treat that problem. 

Catcher Pop Times: Part 1

The Fielding Bible released a study on catcher pop times (along with pitchers delivery times) that showed the obvious, the quicker the time, the more likely they are going to throw out runners. They mentioned a few catchers' names, but didn't release a full list. I was already working on gathering some catcher pop times. So here, I am not trying to do any kind of study, that has already been done. I am simply trying to just gather some times and publicly release them, just like I have been doing with the running times for position players. This is only catchers' pop times to 2nd base. I am planning on getting as many times as I can for each individual catcher, instead of getting just one for each player like I have been doing for the running times. Anyway, this list is really limited so far, but I am just getting started and will try to get as many minor league and (mainly) major league catchers as I can. For now, enjoy the first 15 times:

A look at young Astros' pitchers: Clemens, Cisnero, and Oberholtzer

The Astros beginning the 2013 minor league season by using a tandem rotation in their upper level affiliates, along with some short starts by the starters on the big league club, have allowed them to use some of their younger pitchers in long relief stints. I want to look at the Pitch F/X data of three rookie Astro pitchers  we have seen early on this season, Brett Oberholtzer, Jose Cisnero, and Paul Clemens.

Oberholtzer and Clemens were acquired from the Braves in the Michael Bourn trade, while Jose Cisnero is a 24 year old that was originally signed out of the Dominican Republic. In this post, I am only looking at Oberholtzer's 2013 outing as he had an end of spring outing in 2012 that Pitch F/X tracked.  I am also not including Paul Clemens latest outing since I already gathered all the data for the article and had started it when he appeared on the 24th.

Here we can compare their release points:

As you can see, Clemens is probably moving around on the rubber. I thought the difference was when he gets to 2 strikes, as he lets go of the ball closer to the center of the rubber, at about -1.16 feet from the about -1.3 feet he normally does. This change is bigger than when you look at release point for opposing hitter platoon. However, it isn't as big as when you break it down by pitch types. The fastballs are thrown the furthest out, while the changeups are thrown a little closer to the center, and the breaking balls even closer (which would explain the two strike difference, as most pitchers throw more breaking balls in 2 strike counts).

I wanted to see if I could see it in screenshot form:

Breaking Ball:

 Fastball:

Changeup:

I can't see a difference in where he is actually standing on the rubber, or at least the fastball is not the significantly more on the right-side of the rubber than the other pitches. It is hard to be definite by looking at just one screenshot apiece, as it can be deceiving, especially if they are taken at different times of the delivery, but his delivery definitely looks the best on the fastball screenshot. Again, I don't know if we should read too much into that. He does seem to be yanking the curveball though, as we can see by his strike zone:

Jose Cisnero is the most "out" of the group, while Clemens releases the ball closest to the center of the rubber. Oberholtzer's seems to be the most consistent, especially vertically. Cisnero's also has the shortest release point out of the three. Cisnero actually has the smallest platoon splits (according to FIP) out of the three (which you wouldn't expect), with Oberholtzer's being by far the biggest (1.18 FIP difference). Not surprisingly, Oberholtzer had the best strike percentage in the minors out of the three, while Cisnero and Clemens were tied at a respectable 62.2 %.

A little bit further out Mark Buerhle is a decent release point comparison for Oberholtzer according to our release point comparisons. Livan Hernandez or Zach Stewart are the closest comparisons for Clemens, and Jerome Williams is the closest comparison for Cisnero. These aren't flattering comparisons, but I would like to do some more testing on release points and success. 

What about stuff and pitches? Here are their spin and speed charts with some simple classifications:

Velocity wise, they all have at fastballs that are at least average. Since he is a lefty, we shouldn't be surprised that Oberholtzer has the worst stuff, both by velocity, and just an overall lack of spin on the fastball and change. Clemens clearly has the best stuff, both by fastball velocity and fastball spin, and he also shows quite a bit of range on his fastball, sometimes throwing 90, other times throwing 96 MPH. Cisnero shows off the biggest variety, with 4 different pitches.

Oberholtzer's curve is interesting because it has curveball movement (MLBAM tags wanted to divide the pitches I labelled curves into curves and sliders) yet a little spin like a slider might have, and slider like velocity, especially compared to his fastball velocity.

In conclusion, all three clearly have their flaws, but they all have different skill sets that could help them get hitters out in the big leagues. Because of his release point, I question whether or not Cisnero can be a MLB starter without a changeup he throws a lot to keep lefties off balance. The mix of pitches tells us he may be a decent long reliever though. Oberholtzer is a command lefty, without great stuff, and the curve doesn't have the vertical movement you would want it to. The ceiling is a back end type starter, with maybe a low leverage reliever as a MLB floor (the release point doesn't scream specialist). Clemens is the most interesting of the three, but also the most likely to fail in a starter role because of the strange things going on with his breaking/off-speed pitches. If nothing else, he can be a plus fastball/curveball reliever and work in relatively high leverage roles.

Behind Jake Arrieta's Meltdown

Jake Arrieta had a really strange outing on Sunday, which is probably a fitting microcosm of a really strange pitcher, at least when it comes to results versus stuff. Arrieta started against the Dodgers and looked absolutely filthy, throwing a plus plus fastball right by hitters, and mixing in a very hard slider to keep them off balance. Even mainstream reporters were taken aback by his nasty stuff and how well he was pitching. Then, before the 4th inning, I actually turned from the game to watch the Mariners, and saw later in the day on highlight shows that, despite having a big lead, the wheels absolutely came off for Arrieta and he ended up blowing the lead, losing the game, and getting sent back to AAA at age 27. In this post, I wanted to breakdown his outing and see if I could find anything to help us unlock the strange puzzle that is Arrieta.

The first two innings for Arrieta were completely dominant, he got 2 strikeouts, 2 groundouts, an infield fly-out and a fly-out to center.

Average velocity on all pitches: 91.51 MPH

Fastball/Sinker Velocity: 95.76 MPH

Strike zone:

As you can see, he is throwing mainly glove side here, away from righties, in to lefties.

Release Point Consistency: Standard Deviation was .182 horizontally and .084 vertically

Release Point Averages: 6.54 vertically -2.3 horizontally 

The 3rd inning was very shaky, as he walked 3 batters, gave up a run, and struck out two swinging.

Average velocity: 92.78 MPH

Fastball/Sinker Velocity: 95.06 MPH

Strike zone:

 Here, he misses more arm-side, suggesting that he is perhaps not finishing his delivery as well. He also had a lot more pitches that were thrown up high as well.

Standard Deviation was .164 horizontally and .085 vertically

Release Point Averages: 6.43 vertically -2.36 horizontally

In the 4th, it looked like he had put it back together, with 2 strikeouts, and a groundout.

Average velocity: 90.9 MPH

Fastball/Sinker velocity: 94.21

Strike zone:

Here, he is back to working glove side, this time basically exclusively. He also got the ball down more.

Standard deviation was .142 horizontally and .085 vertically
6.43 vertically -2.29 horizontally 

In the 5th, the wheels came off. He walked a batter, plunked a batter, walked another one, then gave up a single. His day was done, with no outs recorded in the inning.

Average velocity: 89.75 MPH

Fastball/Sinker velocity: 93.78 MPH

His strike zone:

He actually continued to work more glove side, but there is a few more pitches left up.

Standard deviation was .14 horizontally and .071 vertically.

6.35 vertically and -2.46 horizontally.

So he wasn't more inconsistent with his delivery, he just dropped down as he struggled (or struggled because he dropped down). I wanted to see if this was visible by screenshots. The one on the left is not from the Dodgers game, but represents a 6.51 vertical release and -2.35 horizontal release, basically what he was doing in the first two innings (I used that instead of one from the Dodgers game because he was wearing 42 for Jackie Robinson day in this one, which helps show the difference), while the one on the right is his last pitch against the Dodgers:

Strangely, his posture is actually a little better on the right, but it clearly a more over the top delivery than his Dodgers delivery, which is why he had a higher horizontal number and lower vertical number. 

His velocity also regressed badly as the game went along, as you see. This raises a chicken or the egg question. Was his velocity regressing because his arm angle came further out? Or vise versa?

It also causes one to speculate. Is he tired? Is he hurt? Why did he "wear down" so quickly? Is his delivery simply too hard to repeat? It doesn't appear to be particularly violent, but is it really just putting too much strain on him? Is he yet another Orioles starting pitcher destined for relief? If he keeps breaking down in games like he did on Sunday, the Orioles may ask him if he can just throw 100 MPH bullets out of the pen (a bullpen that doesn't have a lot of room in it).

Charting Rafael Pineda and Colby Suggs

Rafael Pineda is a senior right-handed pitcher for the Texas AM Aggies. He was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 40th (last round) round of the draft in 2012 but decided to come back to A&M. I got to see one of his outings against Arkansas on ESPN, which has a broadcast gun, so I charted his pitches.

Out of the 62 pitches I charted (I missed at least two or three because the velocity wasn't shown on the screen, but it was also a short outing), I counted 4 different pitches Pineda threw:

4-seam fastball: 6 (9.7 %) thrown at an average MPH of 89.5, maxing out at 91 MPH.

Sinker: 26 (41.9 %) thrown at an average MPH of 89.42, maxing out at 91 MPH.

Slider: 28 (45.2 %) thrown at an average MPH of 80.86, maxing out at 84 MPH.

Changeup: 2 (3.2 %) thrown at an average MPH of 79, maxing out at 79 MPH.

Looking at MLB comparisons in the Pitch F/X era, you are obviously going to have to start with sinker/slider guys. You don't see any qualified pitcher in the Pitch F/X era throwing that many sliders, which I feel like I have said before when talking about a college pitcher. As far as sinker velocity goes, Slowey, Looper, Lohse, and Cahill are the closest comparisons. Slowey is the best comparison as far as fastball velocity out of the group, as his 4-seamer doesn't gain hardly any velocity from his sinker. Of course, all 4 pitchers have harder sliders and changes, and have all shown curveballs off in the majors, something Pineda didn't do in the outing I saw him in.

Obviously the velocity is just mediocre, so he isn't a big prospect. The high volume of sliders is concerning, and the sinker/slider skillset is not one that works very often in MLB rotations. It just isn't MLB stuff, and he doesn't have Kevin Slowey's command.

I also saw Colby Suggs of Arkansas pitch out of relief and throw in the 9th inning. He threw just 13 pitches, but it seemed enough to get a look at his two pitches.

He threw 7 fastballs that averaged 95.57 MPH. Out of the 299 qualified MLB relievers in the Pitch F/X era, only 21 have better fastball velocity than that. 

The other 6 pitches were sliders that averaged 84.67 MPH. That fastball and slider velocity meshes very well with John Axford's. Axford has obviously had some problems over the last couple of years, and he had a long and weird road to the big leagues, but he had two really dominant years in 2010 and 2011.

Suggs isn't quite a J.T. Chargios or Damien Magnifico as far as fastball velocity coming out of the 2012 draft, but it is really elite velocity and clearly MLB stuff. The slider has to get some more command, but if you don't mind taking a reliever early, then I don't think you worry too much about it at this stage.

What is Most Predictive of a Good Start?

In this post, I will look at all the MLB starts from April 14th and April 18th and test what is most predictive of a successful start. We have already seen that fastball velocity is a great predictor of a good start, so in this post we will look at overall pitch velocity, release points and release point consistency. Here is the spreadsheet containing all of the starts (it doesn't have every starting pitcher, especially because of some rainouts, but the 5 day net gives us a look at a lot of starting pitchers):

Rather than looking at numbers, here we will look at some scatterplots to check the correlation of each number. I also put lines in each graph that represent the expected correlation, if it was perfect.

Here is the scatterplot of pitch velocity and FIP

Obviously overall pitch velocity doesn't only take in account the velocity of each individual pitch, it also takes into account pitch selection. A high overall pitch velocity says that not only do they throw hard, they threw their hard stuff a lot. Here, we don't see a lot of correlation because there were a lot of starters that threw 85-90 and didnt have good starts. The 80-85 MPH guys didn't have the best starts, but they were also less likely to have horrible starts.

In the next graphs, FIP serves as the horizontal axis. Here is the horizontal consistency (remember, the higher number means least consistent) versus FIP

Not much correlation here. There isn't a whole lot of variation overall (an obvious example being Bronson Arroyo who intentionally changes his arm angle throughout the game), and no real reason for why some of them were horrible starts and some of them were good.


What about just average horizontal release point (the higher the number means the further out)? Here, I assumed that there was no real value difference between lefties and righties, so I changed the negatives (righties) to positives.

Again, not a ton of correlation here, or at least not expected correlation. 1 to 2 feet guys could be anywhere, while the very far out guys seemed to be the best. So perhaps reverse correlation.

Does vertical consistency matter more than horizontal consistency?:

Not really. Again, there wasn't much variation (I took out Arroyo here to get a better look).

What abut just vertical release point:

This is actually probable the best correlative set, and it isn't great either.

Certainly one could have used a different stat than FIP, but I think it tells us a little more about a start than SIERA or xFIP and I would have had to manually input all the kwERAs, which would have taken longer. Overall, I expected the consistency numbers to have a much better correlation than they did.

In conclusion, it doesn't really seem we can use any of these numbers to judge an individual start, at least from one pitcher to another. In future posts, I plan to look at some individual pitchers from start to start to see if these numbers have any correlation for individual pitchers.

A Look at KBO Release Points and Deliveries

In this post, I want to look at some of the deliveries and the release points of pitchers in the Korean Baseball Organization. First, for some context, it is helpful to look at the release points of some recent or current KBO pitchers courtesy of American Pitch F/X data:
In the screenshots below, I included as many pitches as I could find, but I am obviously missing some. The teams should be correct, but there may be a couple that are wrong. More importantly, the names should be correct. A big thanks to Dan of MyKBO for being helpful as always. He was a huge help in identifying some names I had problems figuring out, and I used his rosters and Korean spellings of names to find players. If there are any that are just wrong, let me know in the comments, so I can fix it. All of the screenshots were taken from YouTube, many of them from the criminally under viewed videos of LefthandedSubmarine. I don't know who that is, but his videos give you awesome looks at Korean pitchers and hitters. The screenshots are not uniform, that is, they differ in quality, times of delivery, and angle. I tried to crop out graphics, my own mouse, and any other distractions, but wasn't always successful and often caused different sizes of the pictures. I can't really help that.

So why am I doing this? What am I look for? First I am always interested in arm angle and release point. Are they releasing the ball in a way that will cause platoon splits? Where are they standing on one side of the rubber or the other (this is harder to tell in some of the screenshots)? Also, what do their deliveries look like? Do they look deceptive? Do they look repeatable? Are there heads going along with their bodies? What does their posture look like? For a lot of the pitchers, I will include some notes on what I think about their deliveries. Feel free to disagree with my notes, that is why I put the pictures up there, so people can make their own observations.

NC:

Adam Wilk

 Not bad posture, we don't see the arm come all the way through in the screenshot, so this isn't a great look. He stands on the very 3rd base side of the rubber, which seemed strange to me. His back twists some, but I don't see an overall body lean.

Charles Shirek

He looks like he leans to the left quite a bit, especially with his back and head. His arm angle looks pretty traditional and he has pretty solid posture.

Choi Keum-gang

The arm has already come through and he has already released the ball, so it is hard to guestimate posture too much. Head is straight with body, traditional arm angle.



Eric Hacker

 Clearly has bad posture, back has already come through even though his arm hasn't. Traditional arm angle.


Im Jung-ho

Good posture, but arm comes way out. 

Ko Chang-sung

Lee Hyung-beom

 Not very good posture.

Lee Min-ho

Same here, looks like the previous pitcher, traditional arm angle.

Lee Seung-ho

This is just ugly. I am not sure where to start, that is just painful to look at.

Lee Sung-Min

The big there here is where his head at. This probably doesn't let him repeat his delivery well and may cause him to crossfire.

Noh Sung-ho

Lee Jae-hak

Low arm angle, almost sidearm because his back comes through so early. Head pointed slightly away.

Hanwha:

Ahn Seung-Min

Looks pretty traditional other than a tilt to the left.

Denny Bautista:

It almost looks like he is falling down, he is way pointed to the left. The arm angle is traditional.

Chan Ho Park:

 Obviously retired now, but I am not sure why I didn't put him in the release point chart above. As you can see, Park's is one of the cleanest out of all of them, standing up pretty straight, good posture, traditional 3/4ths arm angle. Park is probably what you should compare all the other ptichers too as far as delivery.

Dana Eveland:

Arm drags behind his body it seems, arm angle seems way out, but that appears to be just the angle, as the release point chart has him pretty standard.

Hyun-Jin Ryu

Not great posture, leans a little right, especially with the head. No real red flags though, arm angle is pretty traditional, sort of high for his height.

Kim Hyuk-Min

Almost a tomahawk motion, not much out, just straight over the top. Head leans with body.

Kim Jong-Soo

Little bit of a lean to the left, looks like he is falling off the mound.

 Kim Kwang-Soo

Decent posture, slight lean to the left, arm seems to drag a little.

Ma Il-yeop

Pretty standard, the arm might be a little behind his body.

Park Jung-jin

 Fuzzy picture doesn't really help, but clear head lean, arm angle a little more up than usual (not a bad or good thing, just an observation).

Yoo Chang-sik

Not great posture, traditional arm angle, head leaning to the right.

Doosan:

Ahn Kyu-Young

Poor posture, though the fact the arm has already come through in the screenshot makes it look more dramatic than it should be.

Byun Jin-soo

 Sidearmer

Dustin Nippert

 Not great posture, arm angle is pretty traditional, leaning pretty hard to the left.

Garrett Olson

 Leaning very hard to the right, not a good looking delivery.

Hong Sang-sam

Kim Chang-hoon

 Sidearmer with good posture, which is kind of weird (though I don't know what it means).

Kim Kang-ryul

Kim Sun-woo

Lee Hye-cheon

 Good posture but his arm is way out.

Lee Jae-woo

 If he weren't tilting so far to the left, then this would be one of the better deliveries.

Lee Yong-chan

Noh Kyung-eun

Seo Dong-hwan

Not bad, leans to the left quite a bit.

Won Yong-Mok

Yoon Myung-jun

KIA:

Anthony Lerew

 Pretty solid delivery and arm angle, would be even better with slightly better posture.

Han Seung-hyuk

Henry Sosa

First base side of the rubber, arm seems a little low and out. 

Im Joon-seop

 Very aggressive tilt to the right, over the top delivery.

Jin Hae-soo

Kim Jin-woo

Ko Young-chang

Park Ji-hoon

Park Jun-Pyo

Park Kyung-tae

 Posture not good, everything else looks solid.

Seo Jae-weong

 Very traditional.

Shim Dong-seop

Son Song-wook

Yang Hyun-jong

Yeo Gun-wook

Yoo Dong-hoon

 Very low release point, strange body motion.

Yoon Suk-min

Despite quite an injury history, this is a very traditional delivery. Okay posture, normal arm angle, nothing strange going on with his head.

LG:

Bong Jung-keun

I like this delivery

Choi Hong-Soon

 A lot of tilt to the left.

Choi Sung-hoon

 His head seems to be working against him.

Im Chan-kyu

Good look at him standing on 3rd base side of rubber and coming very over the top with arm drag.

Im Jung-woo

Ben Jukich

1st base side of the rubber, maybe some arm drag, left leg doing something pretty strange.

Jung Hyun-wook

Jung Jae-bok

 Not bad, leans towards first base.

Kim Hyo-nam

Kim Kwang-sam

 Poor posture and tilt to the left.

Radhames Liz

 The big fastball is brought down by this poor delivery. Not taking advantage of side by making himself horizontal.

Park Dong-Wook

Shin Jae-weong

 Looks pretty good

Shin Jung-rak

Woo Kyu-min

 Love the look at two different sidearmers.

Yoo Won-Sang

Lotte:

Choi Dae-sung

Posture improvement would make this a very aesthetically pleasing delivery.

Chong Tae-hyon

 Arm is submarine, but body is not.

Chris Oxspring

Jin Myung-ho

Jo Jung-hoon

Other than the hard tilt to the left, this looks pretty good, effectively makes him over the top.

Kang Young-sik

Kim Sa-yul

Kim Seung-hee

 Does it look like the arm is dragging here?

Kim Soo-whan

Kim Sung-bae

 Body and head going in a complete different direction as his arm.

Ko won-jun

 High release point.

Lee Jae-gon

He looks big, why is he going sidearm?

Lee Myung-woo

 Decent delivery, maybe a little bit too slow with the arm (or quick with the body).

Lee Yong-hoon

Ryan Sadowski

 Solid, little bit of left leaning, 3rd base side of rubber.

Shane Youman

 This look hurts my hip. Very high release point, using the size.

Song Seung-jun

Nexen:

Brandon Knight

 I am trying to figure out what he is doing with his no throwing arm. Maybe this is why he leans to the left, other than that, he looks good, has had a lot of success in the KBO.

Han Hyun-hee

Im Jung-hoon

 Pretty good, other than the non throwing arm a very slight lean. Middle of the rubber.

Jang Hyo-Hoon

Kang Yoon-gu

Kim Byung-hyun

Kim Sung-hin

 Arm is dragging behind body.

Kim Young-min

 I like this one quite a bit, there is a lean to the left.

Lee Bo-keun

 His body tilt is sort of strange.

Moon Sung-hyun

 Leaning way too much to the left, looks like he is already on 1st base side.

Oh Jae-young

 Good example of mediocre posture.

Park Sung-hoon

Slight head lean to right, rest of it looks good.

Shim Soo-chang

Shin Myung-soo

Son Seung-rak

Andy Van Hekken

He has one of the better ones, and had a clear height advantage. Left side of rubber?

Samsung:

Ahn Ji-man

Aneury Rodriguez

 Bad posture gives him arm drag, tilts to left with glove arm.

Baek Jung-hyun

 Really bad posture and head angle.

Bae Young-soo

Head and glove shoulder a little to left, but looks good other than that.

Cha Woo-chan

Jang Won-Sam

 Not terrible.

Jo Hyun-keun

Kim Hee-gul

Kwon Hyuk

 Have to think the arm is easy to see since it is so far away from his body, despite the fact that the release point is standard looking.

Kwon Oh-jun

 Low 3/4ths delivery.

Lee Woo-sun

Mitch Talbot

Now with the Marlins' minor league system, Talbot struggled in Korea, or was at least below average. The arm angle is traditional, but everything else is horrible. The head tilts way to the left and he is falling off the mound towards the left.


Oh Seung-hwan

Shim Chang-min

 Sidearmer that gets low with his body but doesn't hide the ball.

Shin Yong-woon

Yoon Sung-hwan

SK:

Aquino Lopez

Chae Byung-yong

 Not a good body angle at all.

Choi Young-pil

 Good height posture, leans to left.

Chris Seddon

Very standard and simple looking delivery.

Han Hee

Not bad at all.
Heo Jun-hyuk

Im Jee-young

Im Kyung-whan

 Little bit lower angle than the pitcher above him.

Jae Chun-mo

Jo-Jo Reyes

 Having a lot of success early in the KBO. Back angle is a little weird.

Kim Kwang-hyun

Lee Young-wook

Moon Seung-won

Park Hee-soo

Park Jung-Bae

You have to imagine the screenshot should have been taken a split second before. If you do that, he looks okay.

Shin Seung-hyun

 Song Eun-beom

Uhm Jung-ook

Yoon Hee Sang

 I think the picture makes his arm look much longer than it actually is.

Yoon Kil-hyun

I am not sure what he is looking at.