Swinging Strikes and Balls Leaderboard

by Matthew on Jun 8, 2008 3:17 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Stats

To help tide you over until Jeff's recap is up and since there's not much else happening for the rest of the day, here's a leaderboard of pitchers who have missed the most (and fewest) bats and thrown the fewest (and most) balls up through play yesterday. I've included some mini-thoughts that jumped out at me from looking over this list.

Starting Pitchers				Relief Pitchers
Player	Swing%	Player	Swing%	Player	Swing%	Player	Swing%
Mike Mussina	3.46	Rich Harden	15.64	Chris Britton	1.83	Jose Valverde	17.36
Livan Hernandez	3.79	Randy Johnson	13.21	Steve Trachsel	1.98	Ramon Ramirez	16.99
Jason Jennings	4.42	Edinson Volquez	12.61	Wes Littleton	2.84	Dennys Reyes	15.66
Carlos Silva	4.44	Scott Kazmir	12.54	Kirk Saarloos	2.88	Max Scherzer	15.29
Daniel Cabrera	4.45	C.C. Sabathia	11.91	Alberto Arias	3.54	Juan Cruz	14.88
Steve Trachsel	4.52	Jason Bergmann	11.88	Greg Aquino	3.97	Aaron Heilman	14.52
Kyle Kendrick	4.52	Tim Lincecum	11.58	Jeremy Accardo	4.00	Brad Lidge	14.52
Shawn Hill	4.66	Jake Peavy	11.55	Kevin Cameron	4.19	Rafael Perez	14.41
Aaron Cook	4.77	Brandon Webb	10.86	Glendon Rusch	4.25	Jonathan Papelbon	14.32
Sidney Ponson	4.78	Scott Baker	10.60	Brian Moehler	4.26	Mark DiFelice	14.29
Zach Duke	4.88	Clay Buchholz	10.60	Freddy Dolsi	4.50	Huston Street	14.29
Scott Feldman	4.90	Jonathan Sanchez	10.51	Luis Ayala	4.51	Octavio Dotel	14.23
Pat Misch	4.99	Cole Hamels	10.45	Ehren Wassermann	4.55	Al Reyes	14.08
Brian Bannister	5.12	Tim Hudson	10.36	Lee Gardner	4.64	Jonathan Broxton	13.97
Joe Blanton	5.17	Chad Billingsley	10.21	Justin Germano	4.67	Rafael Betancourt	13.66
Ian Kennedy	5.18	Johan Santana	10.11	Billy Traber	4.67	Boone Logan	13.40
Kyle Lohse	5.22	Shaun Marcum	10.10	Todd Jones	4.71	Scott Eyre	13.39
Glen Perkins	5.41	Carlos Villanueva	10.08	Denny Bautista	4.78	Francisco Cruceta	13.30
Mark Redman	5.48	Javier Vazquez	10.07	Gary Glover	4.96	Tyler Walker	13.27
Mark Hendrickson	5.50	Micah Owings	10.02	Ryan Speier	5.04	Joe Nathan	13.16
Greg Reynolds	5.53	Johnny Cueto	9.97	Brandon Medders	5.06	Pat Neshek	13.08
Kenny Rogers	5.55	Brandon Backe	9.95	Jose Veras	5.20	Cla Meredith	13.08
Jamie Moyer	5.58	Jeff Francis	9.89	Esteban Loaiza	5.39	Matt Thornton	13.04
Matt Belisle	5.63	Ervin Santana	9.87	Marino Salas	5.45	Brandon Morrow	13.00
Justin Germano	5.69	Dustin McGowan	9.87	Clay Rapada	5.56	Trevor Hoffman	12.98
Jarrod Washburn	5.74	John Danks	9.81	Brad Thompson	5.61	Mariano Rivera	12.94
Darrell Rasner	5.81	Todd Wellemeyer	9.76	Zach Miner	5.80	Francisco Cordero	12.79
Paul Byrd	5.83	Ted Lilly	9.60	Chad Bradford	5.81	Jorge Julio	12.75
Barry Zito	5.84	Erik Bedard	9.43	Dustin Nippert	5.85	Joaquin Benoit	12.75
Greg Maddux	5.90	Chris Young	9.41	LaTroy Hawkins	5.88	Justin Miller	12.70

Tim Lincecum could be in bold and Brandon Morrow would likely not be on this list. To what could have been I guess.
Barry Zito misses more bats than Jarrod Washburn.
Mike Mussina misses fewer bats than any other starting pitcher in the major leagues. Mussina has thrown 11 innings against the Mariners in which he's walked a lone batter and struck out nine.
Daniel Cabrera is neck and neck with Carlos Silva?
Brian Bannister can study the stats all he wants but he should really invest some time in improving his curveball.
For as long as Rich Harden is healthy he might have the filthiest combination of stuff and command in baseball. Funny thing is that this rate is even less than it was last year (16.06%).
Max Scherzer has really burst onto the scene and was quickly given some starts for Arizona. DIAF Mariners.

Starting Pitchers				Relief Pitchers
Player	Ball%	Player	Ball%	Player	Ball%	Player	Ball%
Scott Baker	28.55	David Purcey	51.66	Jose Valverde	28.10	Chris Schroder	48.65
Josh Banks	29.07	Dontrelle Willis	49.41	Jon Lieber	28.20	Greg Aquino	47.68
Andy Sonnanstine	31.24	Nick Adenhart	47.06	Mark DiFelice	28.57	Mitch Stetter	46.63
Cliff Lee	31.41	Francisco Liriano	46.95	Bobby Jenks	28.92	Derrick Turnbow	46.47
Nick Blackburn	31.44	Luis Mendoza	45.62	Jonathan Papelbon	29.41	Erick Threets	45.51
Paul Byrd	31.81	Adam Loewen	44.77	Trevor Hoffman	29.50	Mike MacDougal	45.45
Brian Moehler	32.14	Rich Hill	44.76	Chad Bradford	30.23	Kirk Saarloos	45.19
Glen Perkins	32.25	Steve Trachsel	44.10	Mariano Rivera	30.29	Sean Burnett	45.08
Greg Maddux	32.26	Jason Jennings	44.04	Esteban Loaiza	30.54	Steve Trachsel	44.55
John Lackey	32.39	Franklin Morales	43.60	Mike Timlin	30.62	Renyel Pinto	44.46
Aaron Harang	32.60	Shawn Estes	43.50	Cory Wade	30.64	Evan Meek	44.34
Cole Hamels	32.62	Kason Gabbard	43.28	Rafael Betancourt	30.67	Freddy Dolsi	44.00
Kevin Slowey	32.67	Tom Glavine	42.47	Shawn Camp	30.80	Julian Tavarez	43.50
Jason Bergmann	32.72	Chuck James	42.39	Mike Adams	30.81	Sean Marshall	43.40
Jorge Campillo	32.76	Phil Dumatrait	42.35	Jesse Carlson	30.84	Kevin Gregg	43.35
Roy Halladay	32.76	Oliver Perez	41.85	Royce Ring	30.85	Kip Wells	43.25
Joel Pineiro	33.23	Jeremy Sowers	41.81	Doug Brocail	30.93	Todd Coffey	43.13
Javier Vazquez	33.26	Miguel Batista	41.55	Jon Rauch	31.10	Dustin Nippert	42.93
Ben Sheets	33.28	Tom Gorzelanny	41.45	Pat Neshek	31.31	Zach Miner	42.71
Darrell Rasner	33.50	Mike Parisi	41.42	Bob Howry	31.31	Denny Bautista	42.65
Roy Oswalt	33.61	Ian Kennedy	41.42	Billy Wagner	31.58	Ramon Troncoso	42.57
Brad Thompson	33.71	Matt Albers	41.24	Brian Shouse	31.71	Sean Henn	42.39
Johan Santana	33.80	A.J. Murray	41.10	Yusmeiro Petit	31.73	Tyler Yates	42.25
Ted Lilly	33.82	Doug Davis	41.06	Kerry Wood	31.83	Brad Thompson	42.06
Micah Owings	33.89	Jeff Niemann	41.01	Joe Nathan	31.90	Wes Littleton	41.84
Josh Beckett	33.90	Greg Reynolds	40.84	Brian Wolfe	31.94	Hideo Nomo	41.82
C.C. Sabathia	33.97	Manny Parra	40.69	Eddie Guardado	32.17	Alex Hinshaw	41.74
Mike Mussina	34.00	Jeff Bennett	40.50	Joel Peralta	32.27	Ron Villone	41.65
Jered Weaver	34.02	Jeremy Bonderman	40.44	Troy Percival	32.33	Micah Bowie	41.61
Tim Hudson	34.03	Bronson Arroyo	40.38	Kevin Cameron	32.34	Scott Proctor	41.53

A combination you do not want to see is Ian Kennedy on the list for highest percentage of balls thrown and the list for fewest bats missed. Kirk Saarloos is also a member of this list on the relief pitcher side.
Jose Valverde: most bats missed, fewest balls thrown. That's dominance. Oh and he's a goddamn superhero too.
The jump in pitches thrown outside the zone for Tom Gorzelanny is a big factor in his falling off a cliff in 2008.
David Purcey was Ankiel-like terrible in his short major league stint. Dontrelle Willis has three more years on his contract.

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