Where Does James Shields Pitch Within the Zone?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 11:45 AM EDT
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PrintI'm not sure where this will go or what it accomplishes, but I was fooling around with some pitchfx data and created this. Well, let me explain it before showing you. I took all of James Shields pitches within the normalized strike zone against right-handed batters and broke it into nine segments. I then found the frequency of pitches in each respective zone. What's shown below is a visual box with the percentages - note: this is not full season data, it's missing a few starts, and this is only for pitches within the strike zone, not necessarily strikes.
<--Inside/Middle/Outside-->
This is from the catcher's perspective, so Shields rarely challenges righties up and in; under 7% of the time. He does prefer working in the middle/down part of the zones, which makes sense given his stuff. His avoidance of the inner-half of the plate makes sense too. Not often do you see same-handed pitchers challenging batters with their change-ups. I guess what's most striking is the nearly equal distribution. I'll have to check some other pitches to see how Shields compares in spreading pitches out, but I think this is a better method than spray charts of thousands of pitches.
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I'm thinking of different variations of this.
This seems more like a mixture of command/game theory, maybe one where I show his whiffs by zone or something?
I don't know, I talked with a scout about it.
Obviously the cardinal sin is throwing a pitch down the middle, but for game theory purposes, you have to go there some times.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions
Yes.
It’s like going within the strike zone to a free swinger. Yeah, you can throw pitches outside all the time, but eventually a coach will tell him to stop swinging at all.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions
Inside the strike-zone and right down the middle are different beasts.
I could see 10 or 12% there, but unless you are constantly behind in the count there’s no reason to live down the middle.
What if batters aren't looking for a pitch down the middle on 0-2, or whatever.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions
I would think there are better options if you want to throw a strike on 0-2
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions
The count itself doesn't matter.
I’m just saying; there are situations where, if the batter isn’t looking for it, a pitch down the middle makes sense. Whether it be 0-0, 1-0, 2-2, whatever.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I see the point, 16% just seems incredibly high
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
It does.
I need to run Halladay, Lincecum, ect. through the mix and see how often they throw it down the middle.
Maybe it’s a stuff thing. If your pitch breaks a ton, you can throw it so it ends up over the middle.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions
Sounds good.
From this one graph it seems high, but it may not be compared to others. It would help explaining why he’s homer prone for as good as he is.
True
I would think a guy with a good overhand curve can pound the middle more.
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I doubt it makes sense that often though.
Think about the linear weight of a pitch at each location. Throwing one right down the middle (especially w/o overpowering stuff) seems like a bad decision.
You have to weigh the cost of the batter swinging if it’s down the middle too.
16% might be too much.
But I think 5% or whatever is too low. Not that you gave that number, just saying there’s middle ground.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I do wonder how that correlates with HR%.
If it does at all.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions
I can't imagine it does.
Given how 95% of the starting pitcher population regress to the 9-12% HR/FB range.
But who knows. Maybe for batters? It’s like the inverse relationship between fastballs and ISO.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:26 PM EDT up reply actions
There's always that other 5%
who just may have an elevated amount of pitches over the heart.
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by FreeZorilla on Sep 28, 2009 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Curious what lg avg down the middle would be vs each pitcher on staff
I’m guessing lg avg would be a ton of work?
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by FreeZorilla on Sep 28, 2009 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I'd have to ask Dave Allen or Harry Pavlidis for league average.
Heck, I might ask them anyways. They’re gurus at slicing and buckets. I wish I could do heat maps.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:22 PM EDT up reply actions
This was pretty cool btw
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by FreeZorilla on Sep 28, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Good stuff.
Heat maps are easy if you can teach yourself R
I'm guessing as way to judge command?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Just to see where he misses most often
My guess is he is generally down in the zone or to the right due to his change, but he doesn’t throw it as much as he used to so who knows. I bet this took a long time, but if you found a quick way to look at it, any chance you could just repeat the exercise for the 2006-08 as well?
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
If people are interested.
Also: Excel’s “between” function is a lifesaver.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions
You just used the Tabled Data and then used between for all the functions?
Yeah when I discovered conditional formulas it made my pitcher workbooks a million percent easier.
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 12:22 PM EDT up reply actions
I used the locational data and filtered between x and y values.
So like nine different combination.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
You could jsut do a formula that "plots" it...
I.e. If it’s between the x is between two markers it comes up “right.” That might make it easier to do big pools of data.
You mean something like an IF, AND function?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions
I guess you'd want to do one for in the strikezone versus out.
You could include that so if the bounds are 0 and 15, it would look like this:
=if(x<0,“out”,(if(x>15,“out”,if(x>5,(if(x<10,"middle","right"),"left")))
In the strike zone is included in the margins.
So the Y goes from 3.5 to 1.5 and x from -1 to 1. I’m using normalized only.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Seeing it like this is much more confusing than it should be.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions
In words:
If x is less than 0, it’s “out.” If It’s >0 and >15 it’s out. If it’s between 0-5, it’s left. If it’s between 5-10 it’s middle. Etc.
If you tell me the bounds and the cell reference, I can just write the formula.
I understand what it means.
I just meant it’s a lot of information when it’s just listed.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions
I didn't.
The normalized strike zone is going to be included in the three boundaries.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Okay, look.
Look at the px and pz columns. You see all those numbers? To get that down to upper right, middle, ect. you need to limit your zones to the normalized strike zone, which is:
x -1 through 1
y 3.5 through 1.5
That limits it to pitches within those zones. From there you just divide that into nine zones.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions
OK here is the formula for Right, middle, left on px
=IF(Z3<-1,“out”,(IF(Z3>1,“out”,(IF(Z3<-0.3,“left”,(IF(Z3>0.3,“right,”“middle”)))))))
I used -.3 and .3 as the bounds for middle.
Here is up/middle/down
=IF(AA3<1.5,“out”,(IF(AA3>3.5,“out”,(IF(AA3<2,“down”,(IF(AA3>2.5,“up”,“middle”)))))))
Huh..
Nifty!
I’ll try it out in a few minutes, writing a few emails.
Thanks.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Welcome.
From there it should be easy to do pivot-tables to make the chart. You can even take every pitch thrown by every pitcher (or the ones you have) and use pivots to filter the % by pitcher…
OK
Highlight the entire spreadsheet and goto data<pivot table<finish.
You’ve now built a pivot table. These are great for quickly summarizing data.
If you have all your pitches plotted, put “location” along the left-side and “pitches-thrown” in the middle. This will count all the pitches thrown in each bin.
from here you can do a vaiety of different things...
For instance, along the top I put the “event.” This showed me how many of each occurance happened by spot.
The start that I grabbed (7/18/09) Shields threw 8 of 105 middle-middle resulting in 1 2B, 1 LO, 1 1B, and 2 Ks.
looks like there was an error in the first formula.
rather than “right,”“middle” it should read “right”,“middle”
Is this solely 2009 and if so
How does it compare to 2007 & 2008? Maybe this pitch distribution explains why a lot of hitters are swing first pitch fastball this year.
Only 2009.
I’d have to pull the data for the other years.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
So this is the formula?
=IF(Z2<-1,“out”,(IF(Z2>1,“out”,(IF(Z2<-0.3,“left”,(IF(Z2>0.3,“right”,“middle”)))))))
=IF(AA21,"out",(IF(AA20.3,"right","middle")))))))
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 1:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Try this...
put a “1” somewhere on the sheet, copy it, then highlight all the numbers in the column and right click. Do a paste special with values clicked and multiply clicked.
I just had to retype it...
no idea why. It does that sometimes.
Just type out both formulas as I wrote them above except with aa instead of z and ab instead of aa.
Won't matter if it's "out" or "", either way shouldn't be an issue.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions
If you make a pivot of the data...
you can always exclude the ones that contain “out” by clicking on the drop-down menu….
Some cool idea
If you added a “linear weight” column for each event, then yu could do a pivot that averages linear weight by location.
Do you have numbers for last year?
I would guess that it could be an interesting comparison as well. I like this article.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Okay, Niemann has thrown
1,793 pitches within the normalized zone.
178 have been middle-middle
That’s ~10%.
I just filtered the "out" results out first to get the total, then filtered to middle.
I’ll learn pivots later.
159 left/middle
119 right/mdidle
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions
789 pitches in the zone
Left/middle: 45
Left/down: 22
Left/up: 147
So, I think we know where Niemann likes to attack righties…
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions
179 middle/up
84 middle/middle
39 middle/down
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions
134 right/up
84 right/middle
55 right/down
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions
Niemann sure has a lot of pitches up
Might be partially explained by dropping the curve in for a strike
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Kind of strange don't you think?
I wouldn’t think outer half up is a logical place for most pitchers.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Maybe that's why he attacks it: because nobody else does.
Also, I’m not sure. I mean, maybe up and in is the best spot, but people don’t because if you miss, then you might give up a homer.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions
this could go for hitters as well
Carlos Pena and Longo might be nice to see
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 2:25 PM EDT reply actions
I feel like we're on to something
Productive days are cool.
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 2:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Middle-middle as a % of pitches in-zone
Niemann 11.27%
Price 12.14%
Shields 11.74%
Sonnanstine 12.30%
I don't have complete pitchsets on Price, Shields, or Sonny, so be warned those aren't 100% up to date.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions
See below.
Also I did Middle-middle pitches/total pitches WITHIN THE ZONE *100, I did not take it as a total of all pitches.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions
I used different parameters for Shields then you did.
So that explains the difference there.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Indeed.
I have so many ideas right now.
Whiff rate on pitches in the middle comes to mind. I’m guessing Price is superior to Sonny.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions
For me this is one of the most interesting things I've seen here
So, Niemann concentrates in the upper third of the zone. Good for K’s but usually leads to HRs. Which is strange, because that hasn’t happened so much.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Can this be broken down further into count situations?
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
This could be an awesome offseason project....
We could take these and do the linear weights by location. We could split by pitch-type….. ZOMG!
pitch_type left-down left-middle left-up middle-down middle-middle middle-up right-down right-middle right-up
CH 4.17% 4.40% 1.72% 5.26% 3.37% 0.62% 0.00% 3.36% 0.00%
CU 9.72% 9.43% 13.22% 20.00% 17.42% 10.56% 18.75% 19.33% 7.85%
FA 1.39% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
FF 75.00% 79.25% 79.31% 67.37% 69.66% 76.09% 60.42% 58.82% 81.15%
FS 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.31% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
FT 4.17% 1.26% 1.44% 1.05% 0.56% 0.62% 2.08% 0.00% 0.00%
SL 5.56% 5.66% 4.31% 6.32% 8.99% 11.80% 18.75% 18.49% 10.99%
Grand Total 72 159 348 95 178 322 96 119 191
This should become a new article, it is now bigger than the original
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Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Whiff-rate on middle-middle
Pitcher Whiff-rate
Niemann 5.06%
Price 9.86%
Shields 6.58%
Sonnanstine 11.22%
Grand Total 7.41%
that is amazing
most pitches in middle/middle yet highest whiff rate
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What pitch was Sonny getting whiffs over the middle with? The cutter?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions
I meant Sonny leading the pack.
I really expected the opposite to be true.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions
God. Multiple-year linear weights by location would be ridiculous.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions
By location, I assume?
Otherwise, we already have those.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
Isn't that pretty much a given, curve up bad, curve down good
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Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
yes
Unless they don’t swing at it….
Like if he throws a “get-me-over” curve. That was my example, though, I wonder how well it would hold up looking at the numbers. We all remember seeing high, loopy curves that get hammered, but I wonder what the numbers say.
It actually kind of makes sense.
Sonny’s entire reputation is based upon having mediocre stuff and dancing around the strike zone. With that kind of reputation, slotting 2-seamers down the middle would seem effective, especially since his 2-seamer isn’t that bad at all.
This could be useful for locating where each pitcher is getting hit as well
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
The early assumption in this thread was that middle middle was the worst
Maybe some pitchers can work it as RJ said.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
This could be a great series for the off-season
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by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, I don't have those numbers.
Allen/Pavlidis do.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions
hmmm
That’s your next job. GET THOSE NUMBERS! From there we could do some really, really cool stuff.
How we'd have to do it...
We could make a “result” column which would say swinging-strike, called-strike, line-drive (or 2B), etc. Then use linear weights for each.
Whiff-rate on the cutter for Sonny by location:
left-down 0.00%
left-middle 4.76%
left-up 5.81%
middle-down 0.00%
middle-middle 10.81%
middle-out 10.71%
middle-up 7.50%
right-down 0.00%
right-middle 4.17%
right-up 6.78%
Sonny, all pitch-types:
left-down 7.69%
left-middle 3.06%
left-up 6.02%
middle-down 3.64%
middle-middle 11.22%
middle-out 9.41%
middle-up 7.81%
right-down 15.52%
right-middle 4.17%
right-up 7.41%
58 pitches right-down
That’s 9 whiffs.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 2:56 PM EDT up reply actions
yup, just righties, all pitches
left-down 10.53%
left-middle 0.00%
left-up 5.08%
middle-down 0.00%
middle-middle 14.29%
middle-out 10.81%
middle-up 13.11%
right-down 17.65%
right-middle 3.85%
right-up 9.80%
just righties, just cutters
left-down 0.00%
left-middle 0.00%
left-up 10.71%
middle-down 0.00%
middle-middle 9.09%
middle-out 15.38%
middle-up 14.29%
right-down 0.00%
right-middle 0.00%
right-up 8.11%
This is like getting into the pitcher's heads
Or once you add the hits seeing exactly where they are missing and on what pitch. Very cool
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Price gainst lefties, all pitches
left-down 10.53%
left-middle 11.76%
left-up 0.00%
middle-down 0.00%
middle-middle 3.57%
middle-out 7.69%
middle-up 20.83%
right-down 0.00%
right-middle 0.00%
right-up 11.76%
So, he rides the fastball up and they can't catch up?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions
So lefties don't chase up and away on his fastball.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions
So the plate is from the catcher's perspective
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
We need to develop a way to look at pitch chains.
How often is Niemann going CV-CV or FA-FA-FA-FA, etc.
need to have correct pitch ids for that
could do it manually
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions
This is only on strikes thrown, correct?
Some of the hit balls will be out of the strikezone. Also some of pitches out of the zone are called, or swinging strikes.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Only one pitches within the normalized zone.
Some are called balls, some aren’t.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, remember my post on him with the spray chart?
Dude gets squeezed on the bottom. That or he faces more short batters than anyone else on staff.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:05 PM EDT up reply actions
That is interesting too, maybe has something to do with his release point and the trajectory of the pitch that fools umps
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Shields HR/P% by location against RHB
left-down 0.00%
left-middle 1.92%
left-up 1.20%
middle-down 0.00%
middle-middle 4.23%
middle-out 1.61%
middle-up 2.78%
right-down 3.45%
right-middle 1.45%
right-up 3.96%
so middle-middle is the worst, but...
right-down and right-up are almost as bad. He isn’t that much more likely to give up a homer right down the middle.
How many of those right side homers are on change-ups?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions
w/o middle-out (no idea how that got there)
left-down 0.00%
left-middle 1.92%
left-up 1.20%
middle-down 0.00%
middle-middle 4.23%
middle-up 2.78%
right-down 3.45%
right-middle 1.45%
right-up 3.96%
Do I have to add a column with their name?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions
From here you can pretty much anything...
You can put location along the row-fields and pitchers along the column. Then you can populate the data items and it will count the occurances.
If you want just HRs, for instance,
you can put event up top in “page fields” from the drop down select HR. This will show where each pitcher gave up HR.
It keeps giving me a list of velocities down the side but none under the names.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions
Sonnanstine hasn't touched 92 this year.
Gosh.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions
He's thrown curves in the 60s.
How did I not notice this before?
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions
In one of my posts I mentioned he looked like BP speed
I thought I was exaggerating at least some.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
A lot of people have been wondering about Sonny 2008 vs 2009, could be an interesting analysis
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Nope. It takes about 20 minutes to collect the data by hand though.
It just gets tedious.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, I'm sure "DRaysBay data intern" is something people want on their resume.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:19 PM EDT up reply actions
The only way I can think this would help is if they were hoping to latch onto the Rays.
And even then, I have no idea how much doing data work for the site would help.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Get a smart kid around 16 years old
My 14 year old is smart enough to do it.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
He said no, but I still think if you need someone a H.S. kid would do it.
Ask a H.S. math teacher.
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
Might just post an ad for one for the off-season.
Unpaid, but credited and future reference.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Yup
I almost applied to do an unpaid internship at BP in college.
You should try to get some through FG…
I thought I recalled something about that...
I imagine they do the stuff for the stat-pages not writers’ bitches.
Imagine having a database with the pitch fx for every pitch ever….
splooge
I think we're re-doing the park factors this off-season.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions
That's good.
Is tRA going to be on the leaderboards next year and any plans to use it for win vlaue?
Not sure about usage in WAR
But yeah on leader/team pages.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions
i should have at least applied
only required five hours a week and excel knowledge,
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions
I still don't know how much they pay.
But I just checked my old emails and found what they’re doing: salary/DL database.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't even know who they hired.
Maybe they’re for the off-season projects.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions
just give me a minute or two to gather them
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 3:19 PM EDT up reply actions
This would be excellent.
I’ve been meaning to try your method for data collection, just haven’t gotten around it.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:19 PM EDT up reply actions
B-Ref's gamelogs have a direct link to the Brooks page, from there I just copy and paste.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Yes, yes I do.
Maybe I’ll do that tonight.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions
i could do hit location data too
but I don’t know I how to make close to accurate graphs
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions
only problem is no one has really delved into it
I just need to re download the data for hit location,
will require a longer method though
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions
haha at least link to the guy's site
http://mvn.com/theraysparty/2009/09/non-database-pitch-fx-part-one-downloading-the-files.html
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I did.
I didn’t realize they weren’t direct links.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:25 PM EDT up reply actions
you want 2009? I have all the data from 2008-2009 a couple of days ago
by therayspartyleader on Sep 28, 2009 3:31 PM EDT reply actions
That would be most excellent.
Thanks a ton.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions
this thread = awesome
I’m really excited to see what you all smart people are able to do with this.
Good stuff as always guys
quick question though. I know the Rays have their own statistician (always forget his name, apologies) but do you think players get shown raw data like this? Or is the process more like the stat guy relays this to Friedman, Maddon, or whoever and they just tell the player “stop throwing up and in so much”? I would guess it would be through the manager or pitching coach, so maybe this is a dumb question, but I was just wondering if anyone knew how this process usually went.
The Rays have a handful of guys.
James Click and Josh Kalk being the most well known. Click is more of a logistics guy while Kalk is the pitchfx master. As far as I know, Kalk does submit tidbits to Maddon and the coaches. Plus the Rays have stat guys like Neander and Bendix who put forth information.
Do players get shown it? Not sure, do they get told through other means? I think so.
by R.J. Anderson on Sep 28, 2009 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions
Ok thanks
thats what I figured I was just kind of wondering how this info gets relayed. Again awesome work man. Really cool to be able to be a casual fan and still get access to this stuff because of you all’s hard work.
by BJ the Bossman on Sep 28, 2009 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Basically Kalk works on something for 20-30 hours which he hands to Hickey
After leaving Hickey cracks open a beer and throws it away.
Embrace Eternity
by Sandy Kazmir on Sep 28, 2009 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Very very good article and subsequent posts
It was fun, and I’m anticipating some really great future articles. You guys take shit about being stat guys, but I think everyone will see a lot of benefit from this information. Thank you
Gary Williams for President!
Put Rose in the Hall of Fame
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