A Look At Carlos Pena and Pitch Selection

If you've watched Carlos Pena over the past three weeks you may have noticed a real change in the way he has been pitched. Even with "protection" in the form of Ben Zobrist behind him, pitchers are throwing less heaters and more junk in Carlos's direction. In the month of June, 43.4% of the pitches thrown to Pena have been sliders, curveballs or change ups. This number has increased each month of the season.

To the charts...

In April, Pena saw a steady diet of fastballs and cutters. He also hit .256/.340/.628 with 22 extra base hits including nine home runs. His percentage of off speed and breaking balls were a combined 31.5%. Carlos struggled in May, and as you can see, he saw a bit more of the "junk" thrown his way. The amount fastball and cutters thrown to him decreased while the overall percent of off speed and breaking pitched rose slightly to 33.5%. Pena's strikeouts also rose from 31.4% in April to 39.0% in May. His May slash line looks like this .210/.388/.510. His average and slugging were both down, but the good news is he still hit eight bombs and walked a lot more actually raising his OBP.

As I mentioned above, Pena has seen a sharp decrease in the hard stuff and a bunch of slower more bendy pitches thrown his way this month. The percentage of sliders, curveballs and change ups he is seeing are all season highs. His strikeouts have risen to 39.3% while his walks have decreased from May. If you look at Pena's O-swing by month, you can see with the increase in off speed pitches has come an increase of swings outside the zone.

Despite the increase in soft stuff, Pena is he is hitting .246/.382/.574 in June; basically a typical Carlos Pena month. Even though pitchers are pitching him differently, he is still walking at a nice clip. When he does hit the ball, he hits it with authority. The strikeouts and O-Swings% are extremely high right now, and as Pena adjusts to the way he's being pitched, I expect them to decrease which will hopefully increase his walks even more. After a slow start to 2008, Pena is hitting right about where we expected in 2009 even with the shift in the way he is handled. A note to opposing team's pitchers: Throw what ever you want, but you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.