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Pitching Leaderboards - Starters

Returning to some PITCHf/x derived pitching stats, starting with 2009 baselines. Qualified leaders (1000+ pitches available in PITCHf/x) after the jump. Each category has the Top 10 leaders and Bottom 10 trailers.

# 293,491
Swing 0.442
Whiff 0.191
In Wide Strike Zone (IWZ) 0.525
Chase (Swings OWZ) 0.261
Watch (Takes IWZ) 0.385
SLGCON 0.523
GB% 43.5%

Star-divide

 1000+ (104) Swing
Scott Baker 0.536
Johan Santana 0.514
Roy Halladay 0.508
Edwin Jackson 0.501
Roy Oswalt 0.498
James Shields 0.488
Justin Verlander 0.487
Kevin Slowey 0.487
Aaron Harang 0.483
Cliff Lee 0.481
   
Joba Chamberlain 0.361
Yovani Gallardo 0.400
A.J. Burnett 0.401
Livan Hernandez 0.405
Clayton Kershaw 0.406
John Lannan 0.409
Bronson Arroyo 0.409
Trevor Cahill 0.409
Fausto Carmona 0.412
Tim Wakefield 0.413
   
  Whiff
Javier Vazquez 0.290
Ryan Dempster 0.268
John Danks 0.266
Felix Hernandez 0.259
Scott Richmond 0.254
Jorge De La Rosa 0.254
Max Scherzer 0.253
Dan Haren 0.246
Cole Hamels 0.245
Justin Verlander 0.244
   
Livan Hernandez 0.112
Vicente Padilla 0.119
Mike Pelfrey 0.120
Bronson Arroyo 0.120
Derek Lowe 0.122
Jamie Moyer 0.122
Nick Blackburn 0.126
Aaron Cook 0.130
Jeff Suppan 0.131
Brad Bergesen 0.131
   
  IWZ
Ted Lilly 0.625
Cliff Lee 0.598
Scott Baker 0.590
Roy Oswalt 0.581
Dallas Braden 0.581
Roy Halladay 0.579
Johan Santana 0.578
Randy Wolf 0.572
Jordan Zimmermann 0.571
Cole Hamels 0.571
   
Derek Lowe 0.439
Livan Hernandez 0.465
Fausto Carmona 0.466
Joba Chamberlain 0.467
Shairon Martis 0.475
Matt Garza 0.479
Kenshin Kawakami 0.480
Javier Vazquez 0.481
Mike Pelfrey 0.482
Christopher Volstad 0.485
   
  Chase
Justin Verlander 0.347
Johan Santana 0.324
Roy Halladay 0.319
Scott Baker 0.318
Dan Haren 0.317
Felix Hernandez 0.317
Edwin Jackson 0.314
Brad Bergesen 0.313
Kevin Slowey 0.312
Ryan Dempster 0.306
   
Joba Chamberlain 0.208
Vicente Padilla 0.209
Manny Parra 0.216
Brad Penny 0.216
Micah Owings 0.218
Clayton Kershaw 0.219
Brett Myers 0.219
John Lannan 0.221
Joe Blanton 0.222
Gil Meche 0.229
   
  Watch
Joba Chamberlain 0.457
Erik Bedard 0.457
Yovani Gallardo 0.446
Josh Beckett 0.446
Trevor Cahill 0.444
A.J. Burnett 0.440
John Lannan 0.428
Adam Wainwright 0.426
Jorge De La Rosa 0.424
Tim Wakefield 0.423
   
Scott Baker 0.310
Roy Oswalt 0.325
Kenshin Kawakami 0.332
Johan Santana 0.332
Edwin Jackson 0.340
Aaron Harang 0.341
Scott Richmond 0.342
Carlos Zambrano 0.342
Chris Young 0.346
Javier Vazquez 0.347
   
  SLGCON
Ricky Nolasco 0.686
Dave Bush 0.667
Brett Myers 0.662
Jamie Moyer 0.641
Cole Hamels 0.640
Jorge De La Rosa 0.637
Brett Anderson 0.633
Francisco Liriano 0.633
Randy Johnson 0.632
Manny Parra 0.628
   
Josh Johnson 0.388
Vicente Padilla 0.392
Brian Bannister 0.405
Derek Lowe 0.420
Jason Marquis 0.426
C.C. Sabathia 0.427
Felix Hernandez 0.431
Ubaldo Jimenez 0.433
Nick Blackburn 0.433
Edwin Jackson 0.433
   
  GB%
Joel Pineiro 59.2%
Aaron Cook 58.5%
Rick Porcello 58.0%
Roy Halladay 57.6%
Jason Marquis 57.1%
Fausto Carmona 55.7%
Mike Pelfrey 54.9%
Derek Lowe 54.4%
John Lannan 54.0%
Ubaldo Jimenez 54.0%
   
Chris Young 30.7%
Ricky Nolasco 30.9%
Jered Weaver 31.5%
Ted Lilly 32.7%
Johan Santana 33.0%
Kevin Slowey 33.3%
Justin Verlander 33.9%
Scott Baker 33.9%
Aaron Harang 35.4%
Randy Wolf 35.7%

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You know I love these posts, Harry.

RJ and I were chatting earlier about David Price and it appears he has no out pitch against righties. His whiff rate is pretty low and he gets barely any swings at pitches out of the zone.

That’s probably because he’s throwing a lot of fastballs and sliders. Hitters don’t chase fastballs out of the zone and they don’t miss them in the zone. Sliders don’t tend to be as effective against righties.

Anyway, it would be neat to see a leader boards post on swing% for each pitch both in the zone and out of the zone. And whiff rates in the zone versus out of the zone. If hitters aren’t chasing Price’s fastball out of the zone, which pitcher’s pitches ARE they chasing?

by Sky Kalkman on Jun 24, 2009 3:26 PM EDT reply actions  

PiƱeiro's GB% is now listed as 61.3 at fangraphs

The sinker is real!

Albert Pujols does not have "down" years. He has "5.7 WAR" years.

by mattybobo on Jun 24, 2009 4:59 PM EDT reply actions  

These stats are quite interesting but I’m having trouble so far figuring out how to use them to analyze a pitcher. They tell us what pitchers are throwing and how batters are reacting but they I’m not sure how that information can be used to evaluate a pitcher. Has anybody used this information so far to evaluate pitcher quality. Such as, are we better able to evaluate what pitchers will continue to have high strikeout rates or low walk rates? For the past few years saberticians have been moving toward using “peripherals” to better predict future performance than just looking at ERA. Will the sub-peripherals" now allow us to better predict future peripheral performance?

Along these lines what do we make of Joba Chmaberlain? As you note he induces the fewest swings. That may not be surprising considering he doesn’t often pitch in the zone, nor do hitters go chasing after the ones out of it. Nonetheless he seems to be experiencing very good K rates since so many batters simply watch his pitchers go for strikes. Yovani Gallardo seems to have a similar profile as well.

However someone like Johan Santana or Scott Baker are having similarly good experiences with the complete opposite approach. If Joba/Yovani were bad pitchers experiencing bad results then this would make sense but since they all have fairly good final results I’m not sure what to make of these stats.

At the end of the day do these stats simply tell us how and why pitchers ended up with the Ks and BBs that they did; or will they also help us more accurately figure out who will get the Ks and BBs in the future?

by Toffer Peak on Jun 24, 2009 7:04 PM EDT reply actions  

Excellent Harry, I love these posts

Maybe you have already mentioned this, but is there any word on which of these stats are the most predictive/meaningful? For instance, Scott Baker is among the best in several in this categories yet he has pitched pretty poorly so far this season.

St. Louis relievers... defying win expectancy since 2008
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com/

by vivaelpujols on Jun 24, 2009 10:03 PM EDT reply actions  

As a proud Scott Baker fantasy owner

I’d say he’s been far from poor with a 3.87 tRA.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Jun 25, 2009 1:59 AM EDT up reply actions  

Good call

That’s what I get from looking at ERA :)

St. Louis relievers... defying win expectancy since 2008
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com/

by vivaelpujols on Jun 25, 2009 3:26 AM EDT up reply actions  

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