Stuff
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:02 am
I'll relax on "Stuff" after this one. A combination of the first slo draft and getting the Christmas season out of the way has got the juices going...
I saw an article featuring the 'take rate' of some ballplayers. The take rate being the percentage of balls that players take in the strike zone.
Chris Young took an incredible 40% of strikes last year. Let's factor in another 20% of swinging at bad pitches or pitches he has no chance at because he is a young, undisciplined hitter. Right off the bat (baseball metaphor), the pitcher is already at a 60% success rate before even throwing a pitch!
A new approach may be helpful for Young. He wouldn't have to go far for that new wave of thought. Teammate Mark Reynolds has taken John Daly's theme, "Grip it and rip it" very well. This kind of aggressiveness may be just what Young needs.
I've been getting PM'ed, criticizing that I've veered from fantasy stuff to real stuff, let's get back on track and have a look at some lefty/righty splits. Here are some oddities that you probably did not know...
Yuni Betancourt had more home runs(4) vs. lefties than Ryan Ludwick(2)...Yeah, the Cards need Matt Holliday. Oh wait, Holliday only had three home runs vs. LH pitching. If we throw in that Rick Ankiel's home runs all came vs RH, we see that the Cards were virtually POWERless vs LH. The word 'virtually' being used there because Albert is still Albert and had 13 home runs off LH.
Milton Bradley's splits were slanted to one side, only one of his 12 home runs were from the right side. Another switch hitter was trying to keep it as even as he could. Chipper Jones extra base hit line is 11/1/9 vs LH, 12/1/9 vs RH. Even this is slanted though, when considering that Jones had 170 more at bats vs RH.
Ryan Braun and Derek Jeter both hit .395 vs LH and both still hit over .300 vs. RH.
Pitchers may as well throw grenades to Ichiro, Mauer, or Pujols, and it doesen't matter which hand they use. Ichiro, Mauer, and Pujols all hit at least .324 no matter which side of the rubber the ball came from.
Tampa Bay has to be like a Circuit City customer who bought an expensive HDTV last year and would like to return it because it doesen't work well. Pat Burrell had gone eight straight years with at least 20 home runs. Not only did he just hit 14 last year, zero were against LH.
Nick Markakis had a whopping 263 at bats vs LH last year, 40 more than any other player.
Two switch hitters (Figgins and Roberts) had 200 at bats vs. LH, no pure right handed batters had that many.
Before considering Will Venable a sleeper (#%$$^$$#!), I can't do it, lets start that sentence over....
Before considering Will Venable a value at a later round, consider this:
Will Venable had 71 at bats against LH, a double was his only extra base hit.
Skip Schumaker had two doubles in 100 at bats vs. lefties. His only extra base hits.
Julio Borbon had just two hits (singles) in his 16 at bats vs. lefties.
Michael Cuddyer led all of baseball with 15 home runs off LH. Jayson Werth led the NL with 14.
Chase Utley was the only player with a double double. Utley hit 11 home runs and stole 11 bases off southpaws.
Carl Crawford was only successful four of nine times when stealing off lefties.
Austin Kearns had one rbi vs. left handed pitching in 2009. This would make him a good platoon candidate for your local slo pitch team.
Luke Scott hit 10 of his 25 home runs vs. lefties, backing up his statement that he should not be a platoon player.
Russ Martin had 26 extra base hits last year.
Total. Against RH AND LH.
He should be backhanded for the underhanded way he treated fantasyers that took him early in the draft last year.
Finally, there are some matchups that don't translate to numbers. Larry Walker vs. Randy Johnson at the All Star game for instance.
One lefty on lefty matchup that amuses me is Kelly Johnson vs. Oliver Perez. If you haven't seen this or can view it on a computer, do. It's worth the laughs.
I saw an article featuring the 'take rate' of some ballplayers. The take rate being the percentage of balls that players take in the strike zone.
Chris Young took an incredible 40% of strikes last year. Let's factor in another 20% of swinging at bad pitches or pitches he has no chance at because he is a young, undisciplined hitter. Right off the bat (baseball metaphor), the pitcher is already at a 60% success rate before even throwing a pitch!
A new approach may be helpful for Young. He wouldn't have to go far for that new wave of thought. Teammate Mark Reynolds has taken John Daly's theme, "Grip it and rip it" very well. This kind of aggressiveness may be just what Young needs.
I've been getting PM'ed, criticizing that I've veered from fantasy stuff to real stuff, let's get back on track and have a look at some lefty/righty splits. Here are some oddities that you probably did not know...
Yuni Betancourt had more home runs(4) vs. lefties than Ryan Ludwick(2)...Yeah, the Cards need Matt Holliday. Oh wait, Holliday only had three home runs vs. LH pitching. If we throw in that Rick Ankiel's home runs all came vs RH, we see that the Cards were virtually POWERless vs LH. The word 'virtually' being used there because Albert is still Albert and had 13 home runs off LH.
Milton Bradley's splits were slanted to one side, only one of his 12 home runs were from the right side. Another switch hitter was trying to keep it as even as he could. Chipper Jones extra base hit line is 11/1/9 vs LH, 12/1/9 vs RH. Even this is slanted though, when considering that Jones had 170 more at bats vs RH.
Ryan Braun and Derek Jeter both hit .395 vs LH and both still hit over .300 vs. RH.
Pitchers may as well throw grenades to Ichiro, Mauer, or Pujols, and it doesen't matter which hand they use. Ichiro, Mauer, and Pujols all hit at least .324 no matter which side of the rubber the ball came from.
Tampa Bay has to be like a Circuit City customer who bought an expensive HDTV last year and would like to return it because it doesen't work well. Pat Burrell had gone eight straight years with at least 20 home runs. Not only did he just hit 14 last year, zero were against LH.
Nick Markakis had a whopping 263 at bats vs LH last year, 40 more than any other player.
Two switch hitters (Figgins and Roberts) had 200 at bats vs. LH, no pure right handed batters had that many.
Before considering Will Venable a sleeper (#%$$^$$#!), I can't do it, lets start that sentence over....
Before considering Will Venable a value at a later round, consider this:
Will Venable had 71 at bats against LH, a double was his only extra base hit.
Skip Schumaker had two doubles in 100 at bats vs. lefties. His only extra base hits.
Julio Borbon had just two hits (singles) in his 16 at bats vs. lefties.
Michael Cuddyer led all of baseball with 15 home runs off LH. Jayson Werth led the NL with 14.
Chase Utley was the only player with a double double. Utley hit 11 home runs and stole 11 bases off southpaws.
Carl Crawford was only successful four of nine times when stealing off lefties.
Austin Kearns had one rbi vs. left handed pitching in 2009. This would make him a good platoon candidate for your local slo pitch team.
Luke Scott hit 10 of his 25 home runs vs. lefties, backing up his statement that he should not be a platoon player.
Russ Martin had 26 extra base hits last year.
Total. Against RH AND LH.
He should be backhanded for the underhanded way he treated fantasyers that took him early in the draft last year.
Finally, there are some matchups that don't translate to numbers. Larry Walker vs. Randy Johnson at the All Star game for instance.
One lefty on lefty matchup that amuses me is Kelly Johnson vs. Oliver Perez. If you haven't seen this or can view it on a computer, do. It's worth the laughs.