Three of the greatest minds to ever grace this planet. Forman, as you (should) probably already know, is the guy behind Baseball-Reference, an absolutely indispensable website that blows Retrosheet and the late Who Wants To Sex Mutombo out of the water. Of course, I already thought that this morning, before I stumbled across Felix's page and noticed "Pitch Data Summary (Show or Hide)" in big letters below his career stat lines. And...well, let's just say I'm totally floored. I mean, I already knew these numbers existed after reading Matthew Carruth's article at THT a few weeks ago, but B-R compiled all the data from Retrosheet and made it easily accessible, to our collective benefit. Go ahead, check it out. Got the same stuff for hitters, too. All we're missing is a leaderboard for easy comparison between players and simpler correlation analysis.
A few samples:
Felix '06: 79% Cntc% (how often hitters made contact when swinging; includes fouls)
Santana '06: 74% Cntc%
Pineiro '06: 84% Cntc%
Putz '06: 69% Cntc%
Putz '06: 22% StI% (how often hitters put the ball in play after swinging)
Gagne '03: 56% Cntc%
Gagne '03: 18% StI%
Ichiro '06: 87% Cntc%
Sexson '06: 69% Cntc%
Lopez '06: 86% Cntc%
Ichiro '04: 24% StL% (called strikes)
Ichiro '06: 31% StL%
...and so forth. I could look at this stuff all day. If anyone has any hypotheses as to why Ichiro suddenly had a leap in called strikes last year, I'd love to hear them.
0 recs | 18 comments
I saw this Wednesday
and I've spent hours inputting this stuff into Excel the last two days.Yes, I have a problem.
Manzanillos Cup - March 2, 2007
don't worry
at least you don't spend about 3 hours a day driving around taking pictures of highway signs with the objective of getting every highway sign in the state of Washington.Corco - March 2, 2007
Is that your new hobby?
I thought it was wine label collecting. :SIcebreakerX - March 2, 2007
That is my new hobby.
But its beginning to ruin my social life. For instance: I am waking up at 6 in the morning tomorrow to go for a 6 hour drive, so I can be back at work for 12:00. I will repeat on Sunday. Which means I have to go to bed early.Corco - March 2, 2007
Highways
are my crack.Corco - March 2, 2007
You are one weird SOB Corco.
Goose - March 2, 2007
Yeah really.
So what kind of lodging is there in Toledo DJC?Mariner John - March 2, 2007
And what's the traffic like?
Deanna - March 2, 2007
In all honesty, I haven't got down to Toledo yet.
Corco - March 3, 2007
Not to intrude,
but would you e-mail/post that file anywhere?Google docs? I don't have any working knowledge on data fetching, etc.
Trev - March 3, 2007
I can do this.
I'm leaving for the weekend, but I'll try to do something early next week. I have a feeling someone might beat me to it though...Manzanillos Cup - March 3, 2007
My E-mail
mrprotagonist at gmail.comTrev - March 3, 2007
As far as posting a spreadsheet, I mean
Manzanillos Cup - March 3, 2007
Holy crap!
The BBref re-design is so effing awesome!!! I can't believe it! Woo!!!JI - March 2, 2007
Thanks for the numbers Jeff
I think the big jump of Ichiro's StL% has to do with Hargrove trying to meddle with the best batter on the team.They try to fit him in the mold of typical batters and get on his case to take more pitches.
While this is an entirely reasonable approach for normal batters, it's not something you stupidly try to force down the throat of a unique batter who's coming off an incredible season (2004). That is, unless you're Hargrove and have some kind of ego problem which is more important than maximizing the potential of all your players/team.
Anyway Ichiro's #P/PA jumps up from 3.51 in 2004 to 3.73 in 2006 (going through 3.58 in 2005). I think this is the reason for the increased number of called strikes that you pointed out. A more passive approach was required of him, and I think this is one factor why his numbers went down from 2004 after Hargrove got here.
Another factor is that the batters like Beltre flopped big behind him and the offense as a whole was weak, so I think he also tried to switch to a power stroke in 2005 for the sake of the team (also I think he always gets a lot of BS about not hitting for more power. If it ain't broke don't fix it!).
(It has to be mentioned that in his rookie year #P/PA was 3.39 and increased and stabilized around 3.48, 3.50, 3.51 in 2002-2004).
I'm hoping that this year Hargrove lays off the BS, and with a better line-up behind him, Ichiro will return back to the 2004-type hitting machine.
Tom C - March 3, 2007
What I'd Look at...
1. Contact% vs. K/PA -- Who is swinging (and missing) a lot but not striking out?2. Contact% or Swing% vs. HR/PA or HR/OF -- HR% has a positive correlation with K% at the major league level (which is why K's are not as "bad" as people who hate Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell think, but they are definitely bad for minor leaguers). But why is this true -- are those guys more selective with the balls they swing at, or just whiffing all the time?
3. K-looking vs. K-swinging vs. wOBA/OPS, etc. -- Is it better to K-looking vs. K-swinging? Do guys who K-looking more have higher walk rates but lower EBH% rates?
Trev - March 3, 2007
Didn't want to start a new diary for this, but...
I found it funny.HOME RUNS: PHI - GREG DOBBS (2) OFF JOEL PINEIRO IN THE 5TH
patsfan - March 3, 2007
His swing percentages all fell
Ichiro took more called strikes because he swung at fewer pitches overall, strikes and balls. His pitches/PA has also climbed steadily (about 8% higher than it was in his rookie year).But what's really telling is this one:
1st%
21% 2001
23% 2002
25% 2003
25% 2004
20% 2005
15% 2006
Ichiro's taking strike one way more often than he used to.
But he did manage to reduce the number of times he struck out looking, despite taking more called strikes. He's being aggressive late in the count rather than early, and it appears to be hurting him.
Llewdor - March 3, 2007
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