Plate Discipline Results as a % of Total Pitches Seen

by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 2:08 PM EDT

This chart looks at the plate discipline results of each player based on all pitches seen. Some observations:

*Ben Zobrist leads the league in ISO yet only 3% of the pitches he sees in the zone result in swinging strikes. For comparison Longo and Pena sit at 5.9 and 8.8% respectively.

*Longo seems to be having issues with pitch recognition. 13.8 % of the pitches he sees result in swings out of the zone while also taking 17.1% of pitches for called strikes.

*Carlos Pena whiffs on 16% of the pitches he sees. By comparison Longo whiffs on 12.5% and Zobrist on just 6.4%.

*Pena makes the "wrong choice" on the lowest percentage of pitches. 12.5% swings outside the zone and 12% swinging strikes accounts for 24.5% wrong decisions. Barlett is second at 26.6%. Carl Crawford is the worst at 31.3% (14.3%/17%).

*10.5% of the pitches Carl Crawford sees result in contact outside the zone.

Zorilla leads the team with nearly 45% of the pitches he sees resulting in called balls. For reference, Navi only takes 51.4% total pitches.

Below is the table of data:

	Zo	Longo	Pena	BJ	CC	Barty	Burrell	Aybar	Gross	Kapler	Navi
O-Whiffs	3.4%	6.6%	7.2%	4.0%	3.8%	4.0%	4.4%	3.5%	4.1%	3.2%	3.8%
O-Contact	6.3%	7.2%	5.3%	4.1%	10.5%	7.2%	6.3%	7.4%	7.2%	8.8%	9.8%
Balls	44.9%	35.9%	42.0%	39.1%	33.8%	36.3%	42.5%	42.0%	42.2%	39.5%	37.0%
Called Strikes	18.5%	17.1%	12.0%	19.9%	17.0%	15.5%	18.9%	19.1%	16.2%	16.2%	14.4%
Z-Contact	23.9%	27.3%	24.8%	27.0%	30.7%	34.1%	25.1%	25.7%	25.9%	29.8%	32.3%
Z-Whiffs	3.0%	5.9%	8.8%	5.9%	4.3%	3.0%	2.9%	2.4%	4.4%	2.4%	2.7%

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Comments

surprised navi doesn't swing at pitches outside the zone that much. how does one put up such awful numbers while being able to recognize a ball?

by walkoffwalk on Jul 2, 2009 2:11 PM EDT reply actions

He is 2nd on the team in terms on contact outside the zone

If he cuts back on the hacking he will ultimately get better pitches to hit.

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by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Also his called strike % is inflated by a big % of called strike 1s

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by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Get ahead early and he does the work for you.

by R.J. Anderson on Jul 2, 2009 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions

That was my first impression...

But he swings at a lot, he just doesn’t miss many.

Funny thing is that Navi and Pena’s approach is very similar. They both swing at roughly the same percentage outside the zone and neither takes many strikes. The difference is Pena’s taking a huge hack and produces when he makes contact and Navi hits like Alfredo Griffin.

by tallyray on Jul 2, 2009 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Could you run a comparison with Barlett from 2008?

He seems to be a bit more selective. Also, is there a way of differentiating between out of zone in play contact and out of zone foul contact?

by tallyray on Jul 2, 2009 2:24 PM EDT reply actions

I'd expect CC's percentage here to be abnormally high.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 2, 2009 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions

I wish

Also wish I had in zone/out of zone BA and SLG

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by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions

The thing that stands out at me the most is Pena

High balls called count, plus low called strikes are nice. Unusually low contact in-zone and lots of missed in-zone swings indicate a really gaping hole in his swing somewhere.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 2, 2009 2:30 PM EDT reply actions

That, or he's swinging like he's trying to kill someone every time he steps up to the dish.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 2, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Trying to pull the heck out of every swing

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by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions

Pena's hole is up

I have no data to back this up, but it seems that he swings and misses at a lot of high strikes with that uppercut.

by zeng8r on Jul 2, 2009 2:57 PM EDT up reply actions

If he could just figure this out, he'd be a well above average baseman.

The only thing that keeps him out of that territory is the batting average part of his OBP.

I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.

by kericr on Jul 2, 2009 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Rec'd

Nice work and good use of the graphs and tables. Easy to read.

I wonder what player sees the most pitches in and out of the zone. To get this just add the % of balls + O-Contact + O-Whiff. Correct?

by matthan on Jul 2, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions

yea thats available on Fangraphs

Top 3 bars on the chart are in the zone, bottom 3 are out so you can eyeball it. Zo and Pena are pretty close to fewest pitches in the zone while BJ and Bart see the most in the zone. I’d expect BJ to move towards Zo and Pena nwo that he is healthy and won’t be challenged as often.

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by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions

This is cool

What matthan said, this is an excellent presentation. I am impressed the Zobrist is seeing the highest % of balls.

Maybe I’m just an old fashioned BJ suck-off-er. (Good call Sandy)

by Lurch's Lobbyists on Jul 2, 2009 3:17 PM EDT reply actions

I certainly do enjoy

seeing Pena’s 16% swing and miss documented. Good times

by Buc Wild on Jul 2, 2009 3:20 PM EDT reply actions

We also see one of Longoria's big problems...

He’s second to Crawford in swinging at balls outside the strike zone. I can only imagine the percentage that is low and away. That seems to be the one issue he still has to overcome.

Interesting that Pena and Zobrist are seeing the most bad pitches while Bartlett and Upton are being thrown a whole lot of strikes.

by tallyray on Jul 2, 2009 3:29 PM EDT reply actions

by FreeZorilla on Jul 2, 2009 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions

I must admit that this chart seems to match up very well with the eyeball test.

Upton – Looks at a lot of good pitches, but seldom ever swings at a bad one
Crawford – Swings at a few too many bad ones, and hits a lot of badballs.
Pena – Swings through a lot of pitches

Very good work.

by GomesSweetGomes on Jul 2, 2009 5:31 PM EDT reply actions