Pitch f/x and Sheets' Second Start

Another start, another great perfomance. But you don't come here for recaps, you come here for silly graphs, right?

In my previous post, I looked at Sheets' fastball velocity from his first start of the season and how it changed as the game went on. Let's repeat the exercise for his second start. Fist, the basics:

Fastball Velocity [MPH]
1st Start / 2nd Start:
AVE: 92.4 / 94.5
MAX: 94.6 / 96.2
MIN: 87.5 / 92.4
MED: 92.6 / 94.6

Significantly more velocity in his second start, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Let's see how his velocity changed as the game went on:



What if we remove those first two, offensive fastballs?



A marked improvement over his first start, where it took him two full innings to really get warmed up. As the season goes on, which will be the exception and which the rule? I guess we'll see.

Looking at pitch locations, Sheets was REALLY getting the benefit of the doubt on outside pitches to LH hitters. While that's not uncommon, it seemed especially pronounced on TV. Here are all the called strikes against LH batters:



More than a couple of those called strikes occurred in the first inning, so it's not like the Giants didn't have chance to adjust. :)