One of the biggest difficulties I have in learning how to scout players is identifying pitches and measuring how well prospects throw them. With high school and university level pitchers, the difference between a curveball, slider, or lord forbid, a cutter, isn’t always as simple as looking at the radar gun. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Natural movement is critical to identify because it just can’t be taught. But daaaamn that’s hard to see, unless perhaps you’re like my boss and pitched professionally for a good part of your life.

Too bad for me there’s no pitch f/x data for Korean high school kids. Maybe someday.

At this point I think there’s plenty of info to be gained from Pitch f/x and plenty of info not to be gained. One thing for sure, there’s a boatload of research going on, and the info itself is becoming more and more accessible to the general public.

Here’s a fun tool that enables you to easily call up pitch f/x data from any pitcher from any game of 2008. While some of the data will likely bewilder you (as it did me) there are some interesting tidbits for you to chew on, mostly related to pitch speed, selection and placement. Helps me anyway.

Son of Sam Horn has a handy wiki linked from the tool that attempts to explain the data in plain English.