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Astros Wandy Rodriguez, Livan Hernandez Have Curveballs Of Note

In a post for FanGraphs, Paul Swydan looks at the curveball in 2011. Roy Halladay, Craig Kimbrel and Doug Fister are the three that get the attention, but Wandy Rodriguez and Livan Hernandez are two who also receive some mention.

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Rodriguez threw 221 more curveballs than any other pitcher, a crazy amount, while Hernandez's has an insane amount of movement. In fact Rodriguez's CB% has continued to rise year-on-year since 2007, up from 26.8 that year to 37.2 in 2011.

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He also notes that:

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Rodriguez's value was down a little overall last year, and he didn't grade out particularly well in either swinging- or called-strike percentage. Furthermore, his overall strike percentage of 51.72 was more than one standard deviation worse than league average. As a result, he will have to rest outside of the top three for this season.

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Interesting stuff though. Rodriguez's curveball has gotten constant attention since he established himself as a solid rotation option in 2007. Hernandez may or may not make the rotation out of Spring Training.

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