Sometimes when I get to playing with spreadsheets, my interest is piqued by a particular question and I take on a project without really knowing where it's going. This is one such project. A few days ago, when I was working with the Felix data, I found myself wondering "how did he pitch with different guys behind the plate?" Not so much in terms of results, but in terms of pitch sequencing. Who was calling what pitches in what amounts? To satiate my curiosity, I went to Baseball-Reference, figured out who was behind the plate for each of Felix's starts, put all the numbers together, and one thing led to another and now I'm here with a whole bunch of numbers for six different starters and at this point I'm not really sure what they mean. So I'm going to dump them on you.
I think the tables are pretty easy to understand. For each pitcher, I've broken the numbers up by catcher and by batter handedness. I'm sorry for what this post may do to your eyes.
| n | FA% | CH% | CU% | SL% | |||
| FELIX | Righties | Burke | 138 | 71% | 7% | 5% | 17% |
| Clement | 177 | 64% | 11% | 6% | 19% | ||
| Johjima | 834 | 70% | 8% | 7% | 16% | ||
| Johnson | 108 | 70% | 5% | 4% | 21% | ||
| Lefties | Burke | 155 | 60% | 21% | 8% | 11% | |
| Clement | 264 | 66% | 17% | 9% | 7% | ||
| Johjima | 1318 | 62% | 20% | 10% | 8% | ||
| Johnson | 81 | 65% | 10% | 16% | 9% |
| n | FA% | CH% | SL% | |||
| SILVA | Righties | Burke | 118 | 74% | 14% | 12% |
| Clement | 356 | 66% | 15% | 19% | ||
| Johjima | 583 | 73% | 11% | 15% | ||
| Lefties | Burke | 109 | 64% | 31% | 5% | |
| Clement | 480 | 70% | 24% | 6% | ||
| Johjima | 781 | 68% | 29% | 4% |
| n | FA% | CH% | CU% | |||
| BEDARD | Righties | Burke | 731 | 63% | 4% | 34% |
| Clement | 94 | 70% | 0% | 30% | ||
| Johjima | 162 | 60% | 1% | 39% | ||
| Lefties | Burke | 219 | 73% | 0% | 26% | |
| Clement | 35 | 69% | 0% | 31% | ||
| Johjima | 102 | 64% | 4% | 32% |
| n | FA% | CH% | CU% | SL% | |||
| WASHBURN | Righties | Burke | 227 | 74% | 8% | 17% | 0% |
| Clement | 375 | 66% | 25% | 9% | 1% | ||
| Johjima | 1282 | 73% | 19% | 7% | 1% | ||
| Lefties | Burke | 38 | 63% | 3% | 3% | 32% | |
| Clement | 112 | 66% | 1% | 4% | 29% | ||
| Johjima | 539 | 58% | 3% | 7% | 32% |
| n | FA% | FC% | SL% | CU% | CH/SF% | |||
| BATISTA | Righties | Burke | 19 | 58% | 32% | 5% | 5% | 0% |
| Clement | 107 | 64% | 27% | 1% | 7% | 1% | ||
| Johjima | 570 | 52% | 36% | 4% | 8% | 0% | ||
| Lefties | Burke | 76 | 64% | 33% | 0% | 1% | 1% | |
| Clement | 145 | 58% | 34% | 0% | 1% | 8% | ||
| Johjima | 760 | 54% | 36% | 1% | 2% | 8% |
| n | FA% | CH% | CU% | SL% | |||
| RRS | Righties | Clement | 180 | 63% | 18% | 13% | 7% |
| Johjima | 518 | 52% | 27% | 17% | 3% | ||
| Johnson | 151 | 56% | 19% | 23% | 2% | ||
| Lefties | Clement | 75 | 68% | 9% | 15% | 8% | |
| Johjima | 199 | 43% | 2% | 19% | 36% | ||
| Johnson | 54 | 57% | 4% | 17% | 22% |
I only looked at starts, so none of RRS, Washburn, or Batista's relief appearances are taken into consideration. Also understand that there's a bit of an error whenever you're dealing with PITCHf/x in this sort of way, as nobody can look at the numbers and identify pitches with 100% accuracy. Washburn and Batista in particular posed a challenge, as Washburn apparently has more than one pitch after all and Batista was all over the place. Bedard and Washburn each threw cutters, but I didn't bother trying to isolate them like I did for Batista because (A) that's hard, and (B) Batista used his cutter far more than anybody else. Finally, note that I grouped Batista's changeup and splitter together because sweet Jesus you try to tell them apart
So with that out of the way, bam, there you go. Data. I don't even know where to begin, and with some of the sample sizes, I'm not sure it's worth beginning. It's interesting to see how each entry is a little different from the others in each group - that catchers may indeed have their own similar but distinct game plans for every arm on the staff - but honestly, this isn't a project that I thought would lead anywhere amazing on its own. I just did it to do it, because as far as I know, nobody else has done this before, and if you want to gain an understanding of how pitch-calling differs from one catcher to the next - I mean a real understanding - I figure this is where you have to start. Any other approach would be inadequate.
0 recs | 25 comments
Pretty interesting
Given that we had to deal with the whole “personal catcher” phase earlier in 2008. Only thing that stands out in that regard (so far) is how the Bedard/Johjima and the Bedard/Burke battery handle lefties (with the former having a noticable emphasis on offspeed pitches compated to the latter).
ThundaPC - January 20, 2009
what would be really interesting to see is what the era/baa is for each of these pitch/catcher combos. That would probably take some work though.
pumpkin - January 20, 2009
CERA and CBAA aren't very useful statistics
I could look at, say, strike% and sws% tomorrow, but I’m not sure those would tell us very much, either.
Jeff Sullivan - January 20, 2009
I'm confused about n
Is ‘n’ representing the number of pitches you were able to isolate out of the whole season? Felix’ add up to 2009, while fan graphs has him throwing 3199 overall.
batura - January 20, 2009
Felix is fixed
I copied the wrong column into the table.
Yes, n = total number of pitches.
Jeff Sullivan - January 20, 2009
Is there a way
to get Bedard’s spreadsheet?
Thanks.
ele - January 20, 2009
You betcha
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/60232/bedard_catchers.xls
Jeff Sullivan - January 20, 2009
Awesome
Thanks again!
ele - January 20, 2009
The difficulty is it doesn't really have situation figured in.
Japanese catchers tend to mix up on different factors, for instance. Joh’s inclination to clean the plate area is to track a batter’s tendencies in the box and also subtle changes, like grip, ‘lean’, etc. Which apparently messes up the defense too, but eh. Whatever.
IcebreakerX - January 21, 2009
Jeff Clement seems to have Jarrod Washburn and Cesar Jimenez confused
seattlebruin - January 21, 2009
Zdurienciks new video advance scouting, I wonder if this is a piece of what they do.
The direction this going, maybe it’s in line with their work. He wouldn’t have replaced advance scouts unless he’s got something significant, a new approach or methodology.
I’d really like to see how they go about what they do, there has to be more to it than analyzing pitcher film to see if they are tipping their pitches, maybe this type of analysis to pick apart pitching sequences. Find some trends, habits, that type of thing. Not just for the pitcher, but for the catcher.
Kermit. - January 21, 2009
Yes
Jeff Sullivan - January 21, 2009
Do you know any specifics about what they are doing?
If you have info, are you permitted to talk about it?
Kermit. - January 21, 2009
They are taking all the advance scouting responsibilities in-house because some of the information they purchased from third parties in the past was unsatisfactory
Jeff Sullivan - January 21, 2009
Oh. I meant specifics as in what they do as advance scouts.
I imagine they look for recent trends, new pitches for a pitcher, a guy that suddenly can’t turn on a fastball, things like that. But that’s all conjecture on my part, I figure there’s a few things they do that would make for a ‘gee whiz’ kind of moment.
Kermit. - January 21, 2009
I did my best
http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2008/7/8/567091/advanced-scouting
>:(
Matthew - January 21, 2009
Clement slightly more reliant on offspeed pitches against righties as a general trend.
abender20 - January 21, 2009
I thought it was interesting
Clement trends to be fastball “light” on righties (out of the all the catchers), and fastball “heavy” against lefties but with Batista and Bedard, he’s the exact opposite, and with RRS, he seems to be fastball “heavy” vs. RHB and LHB. Maybe I’m restating what ThundaPC and abender20 are seeing, but at a first glance, that’s what immediately drew my eye. The fact that the trend didn’t care if the pitcher was LH (Bedard) or RH (Batista) was interesting as well.
kzuudj - January 21, 2009
Two things immediately crossed my mind when I looked over the data:
-First, I tried to see if this led me to conclude that the Mariners as an organization had a consistent plan they expect their catchers to stick to. I don’t know if there’s enough data to confirm or deny this, which led me to…
-This doesn’t take into account any of the situations in which the pitches were thrown – who the hitters were, early or late in the game, runners on or not, and so on. I would be interested to see a breakdown of how different catchers pitched to the same hitters. If Clement calls for Hernandez to throw a certain sequence to Grady Sizemore, and Johjima calls for a totally different sequence, that would be worth nothing. This would drastically reduce the amount of data to compare, but I think that might generate more of a story.
Interesting data – but to me, lots of things that can affect the numbers and not provide context.
PatLagreid - January 21, 2009
If you have enough pitches context drops out
because all catcher/pitcher combos see similar situations. They won’t be exact but it should be close.
Edgar for Pres - January 22, 2009
I think if you start getting that specific the sample sizes are going to be too small
But I would be interested in seeing 2-strike pitches by battery.
Vatinius - January 22, 2009
I wonder if some catchers stick to a gameplan
and others go with what is working well.
Do you have standard deviation data for these pitcher/catcher combos for pitch percentage between different starts?
Example:
Day 1 Bedard/Clement FB% = 60 (FB not working well, pitch abandoned)
Day 2 Bedard/Clement FB% = 80 (FB working well so used higher )
Day 3 Bedard/Burke FB = 70 (FB not working well, Bedard told to man up)
Day 3 Bedard/Burke FB% = 70 (FB working well but Burke thinks curve command will improve throughout game if continue with it)
Not sure which catching style works better or if its really visible to this degree.
Edgar for Pres - January 22, 2009
I don't have that data
it would take too long to calculate.
Jeff Sullivan - January 22, 2009
Yeah thats fine. I'm surprised you went through and did all this. Very cool though.
Edgar for Pres - January 23, 2009
last day should be Day 4 in example and not Day 3
Edgar for Pres - January 22, 2009
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