Who Takes The Longest Between Pitches, and Who's Cruising?
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 13, 2010 1:55 AM EST
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Print-ed. note: I loved this fanpost so much I gave it a new title and some imagery to complement the great work by DBITL.
I've always been fascinated by how long a pitcher takes between delivering pitches. It can now be quantified, thanks to the PITCHf/x time stamp. Mike Fast wrote three articles about this topic in 2008, but I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a whole lot since. So, I thought it would be cool to start tracking pitch times in my PITCHf/x data.
At this time, I'm tracking: pitches that are thrown with nobody on base, because I can't track pick-off throws; pitches other than the first of the plate appearance, so that I don't the time between batters; and sets of pitches that have more than zero seconds and less than one minute of difference - the former indicates a PITCHf/x glitch, and the latter is probably related to some kind of game delay.
For pitchers that threw 500 or more qualified pitches (pitches that meet the requirements for tracking pitch times) in 2010, here are the 20 major league leaders and major league trailers for time between pitches. Measurements are in seconds:
I noticed that in both directions, there were plenty of representatives from the same team - three A's, White Sox, and Mariners on the "quick" side; three Red Sox, two Rays, and two Rockies on the "slow" side; also, there were no A's, White Sox, or Mariners among the slow workers and no Red Sox, Rays, or Rockies among the quick workers. Here's how the list looks, aggregated by team.
| Team | Average Pitch Time |
| Athletics | 18.9 |
| White Sox | 19.1 |
| Mariners | 19.2 |
| Cubs | 19.5 |
| Phillies | 19.7 |
| Marlins | 19.7 |
| Cardinals | 20.1 |
| Royals | 20.2 |
| Orioles | 20.2 |
| Reds | 20.3 |
| Angels | 20.3 |
| Padres | 20.6 |
| Indians | 20.7 |
| Twins | 20.8 |
| Rangers | 20.8 |
| Astros | 20.9 |
| Tigers | 21.1 |
| Mets | 21.2 |
| Braves | 21.3 |
| Giants | 21.3 |
| Dodgers | 21.3 |
| Pirates | 21.3 |
| Blue Jays | 21.3 |
| Diamondbacks | 21.5 |
| Rockies | 21.5 |
| Nationals | 21.6 |
| Brewers | 21.9 |
| Rays | 22.3 |
| Yankees | 22.8 |
| Red Sox | 23.3 |
That makes sense. It also makes sense that Red Sox / Yankees games take an eternity to play.
The data here are courtesy of Joe Lefkowitz's tool. For further reading, definitely check out Mike Fast's 2008 articles - two on the Hardball Times and one on his blog. I've done a few posts on my blog concerning pitch times. Any comments, questions, or suggestions for improving the methodology are always appreciated.
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This is perfect example of when a graphic
would be more instructive than a table:
Where’s do they compare? How long is 20 seconds in terms of something that AverageFan would understand? Maybe comparing it to the average stoplight?
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So, you mean ...
Some way of providing extra context?
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 12, 2010 3:35 PM EST up reply actions
More or less.
Context in terms of answering “why is the difference between 15 and 30 seconds important?”
What does it mean? Is there an association betwen time taken and success rate?
You know, how much there is there?
See what I mean?
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Hmm ...
Are you more thinking about what the numbers themselves mean, or how they compare to other means of production? Like … we don’t really have a “scale” for this statistic like we do for something like ERA. In regard to that, would it be more helpful if I say something like, “the average major league pitcher in 2010 took 20.8 seconds (which, by my calculations, is correct) between pitches, and these are the pitchers who were furthest away from the mean”? Or, are you thinking more specifically about how pitch time correlates with other metrics? Or something else?
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 12, 2010 4:03 PM EST up reply actions
In a phrase,
why is this important?
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Think I gotcha
Not sure if this ties in that well with what you were saying, but I was wondering … if you polled x number of baseball fans about which pitchers they thought were the quickest and slowest workers and then compared the results to the pitch time data, do you think that would help give people some more context about what “15 seconds” or “30 seconds” means?
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 12, 2010 4:50 PM EST up reply actions
The White Sox announcers always say
that the quicker the pitcher gets it and throws it, the more alert the fielders stay. When you have somebody in left field calling you, your wife and kids every name imaginable, one tends to get distracted the longer between pitches.
by TasteeFreeze on Nov 13, 2010 3:12 PM EST up reply actions
Importance?
Isn’t the importance of this how some pitchers extend the length of a game while others speed it up? I think it would be quite difficult to find something in this that is performance related. However, most baseball fans would like the game to speed up. This is a great example of how it can happen. There’s no reason that some of those pitchers on the long end should be allowed to take that long between pitches. It’s not necessary and it wastes times and makes the game less interesting.
My first question is-
how much does a guy that takes 22 seconds between pitches extend a game over a guy that takes 17?
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball...Rock Chalk Talk
300 pitches a game x 5 extra seconds of nothing happening= 25 minutes of your life ending one second at a time
"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.
Yeah, but that’s if the same pitcher pitches all 300 pitches of a game.
Theoretically if you had the two slowest starters and they were relieved by the two slowest relievers then it would add twenty minutes. But in reality that would happen maybe once ever.
Not to mention, a pitcher that doesn't allow runners but takes 22 seconds
will still have a quicker game than a pitcher taking 18 seconds with two baserunners every inning.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball...Rock Chalk Talk
I love this point.
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by Justin Bopp on Nov 16, 2010 11:53 PM EST up reply actions
I was assuming the difference between the Red Sox and A's as a team
Ok, so it’s more like 4.5 seconds, but you’re still dying a little faster every time you watch.
"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.
Might be interesting to also see
if slower pitchers generate more money or something. How much does this add up over the course of a game and does that mean extra sales of merch or food… or does it possibly hurt?
"These are thin mints. I put them in the freezer. My favorites. So good."
--Reds outfielder Adam Dunn, on the girl scout cookies he keeps in his locker
This is the second time today
I see a list I would expect Halladay to be near the top of, and he is nowhere to be seen. I’ll just go crawl into a corner now.
Mike Fast might be able to help you out.
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 12, 2010 9:57 PM EST up reply actions
When I did this back in 2008
I dumped all the sv_id’s to Excel and did the calculations there using the string functions in Excel. Of course there were only 200-300k pitches with sv_id timestamps at that point.
I’m sure you could do the same in SQL using the SUBSTRING function, but I have not attempted it.
Winner, Beyond the Box Score 32 Predictions Contest, 2009
Harry sent me a function awhile back
select time_to_sec(concat(mid(sv_id,8,2),":",mid(sv_id,10,2),":",mid(sv_id,12,2)))
But my computer fudged up when I tried to do massive queries using times in SQL, especially when grouping by time, etc. You might have better luck.
by vivaelpujols on Nov 13, 2010 4:07 AM EST up reply actions
Nice article
I love seeing this data. It’s interesting seeing Mark Buehrle and Rafael Betancourt still far at their respective ends of the distribution.
Winner, Beyond the Box Score 32 Predictions Contest, 2009
I appreciate it, Mike.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that my data compared nicely to yours from 2008. A next step would be to see, in a more formal manner, how pitch time correlates year-to-year.
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 13, 2010 12:36 AM EST up reply actions
DBITL:
I added this to the front page and gave it a little visual pop.
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I love me some Clayton Richard.
As a Padre fan, it was very nice watching him pitch. Never a dull moment. Also, I’m amazed that Jon Garland wasn’t in the top 20 longest times. That guy is slow as molasses.
My name is Guybrush Threepwood, and I'm a mighty pirate.
"How appropriate! You fight like a cow!"
Faceless slider-tossing goofs FTW.
by Zach (maestro876) on Nov 13, 2010 2:13 AM EST reply actions
How are selecting which pitches to count?
I assume you’re not using all time between pitches because that would include stuff like mound visits and timeouts. Maybe you could do median time?
Basically, there are four criteria
1) Pitches with the bases empty (because I can’t track pick-offs and they would skew the data)
2) Pitches that aren’t the first of the plate appearance (so that I don’t get the time between batters)
3) Pitches that have more than zero seconds between them (because that indicates a data error)
4) Pitches that have less than one minute between them (that usually has to do with an on-field delay)
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 13, 2010 9:00 AM EST up reply actions
Oddities
It’s interesting how many AL pitchers are on the “shortest time” list and how many closers/setup men are on the “longest time” list. Maybe this is a quirk of selecting the top 20 for each or maybe there’s some reason why AL pitchers throw home more quickly and late-inning-relievers take so long to pitch.
Could AL pitchers pitch more quickly than NL pitchers b/c NL pitchers are more concerned about the stolen base or hit-and-run? They throw to first more often in the NL? Why is that? Different styles of play still that prevalent? Your comment above leads me to believe that you didn’t count pitches with runners on base so pickoff attempts and “step-offs” wouldn’t be included, is that correct? Then why do NL pitchers pitch more slowly (if, indeed, they do)?
Intuition would lead me to say the relievers take longer to amp themselves up
rather than getting into a “cruise control” kind of pattern a lot of starters like to get into. Relievers throw harder, maybe accounting for a need of rest between pitchers. Another factor is leverage; every pitch seems more important and thus the focus needs to be higher.
by Daniel Berlyn on Nov 15, 2010 11:19 AM EST up reply actions
Nice work.
One question though. Shouldn’t the “longest time data” player stamps be reversed? (i.e. Rafael Betancourt would have the longest pitch time rather than Phil Coke?
It would be interesting to see how pitch time correlates with success.
M's fan in PA, soon to be LA
by perfectstrat on Nov 13, 2010 10:24 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
You're right ...
Justin put the graphic in, so I will maintain that I am innocent!
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 13, 2010 2:56 PM EST up reply actions
*whoops*
fixed both.
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Steve Trachsel
He was the absolute worst.
John Lopiano
Email: john.lopiano@student.shu.edu
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/johnlopiano
Defense
When Mark Buehrle pitches, very often the announcers comment on how much the defense loves playing behind him because it keeps them in the game and on their toes. I’ve always wondered if this actually translated to performance on the field. Is there a way to do a study which measures defensive performance behind each pitcher as a function of time between pitches?
Wow, no Dice-K
I’m shocked there are actually three Sox (at least) slower than he is.
On Twitter: @baseballtwit
Dice-K's time was 24.9 seconds
He just missed making the bottom 20; his time was 274th out of the 295 qualifiers.
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 13, 2010 3:23 PM EST up reply actions
Two Tigers Pitchers?
I was wondering where Verlander and Galarraga-Galagascan ranked.
Verlander is quicker between pitches, and Galarraga seems to be more in the betancourt – papelbon time frame.
help please and thanks.
Interesting ...
According to my data, Verlander actually takes longer:
(Pitcher/Time/Rank)
Verlander 20.5 124
Galarraga 19.9 92
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 13, 2010 3:26 PM EST up reply actions
Verlander is surprising
That is a surprise, it seemed that Galarraga took much longer between pitches. Maybe it was when he has runner(s) on base to keep his delivery to home at different time/seconds. again thankyou.
by KalineCountry on Nov 13, 2010 4:27 PM EST up reply actions
At first glance
It looks like by-in-large the fastest times come from very young SP, I wonder how much that has to do with nerves.
Edit:
Fixed the labels on the ‘longest time’ graphic. Thanks for the heads up.
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Would it be possible to do the longest time between pitches for just starters?
It seems like most of the longest times are relievers. Seeing the same data for just starters would be interesting.
I don't have starting/relieving appearances split up in my data ...
But! I’ll generate a leaderboard with a higher pitch minimum so that it will filter out relievers.
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 14, 2010 12:15 AM EST up reply actions
Leaders and trailers, minimum 1500 qualified pitches
1. Mark Buerhle, 16.0
2. Trevor Cahill, 17.5
3. John Danks, 17.5
4. Jon Niese, 17.7
5. Clayton Richard, 17.8
6. Jeremy Guthrie, 18.1
7. Jason Vargas, 18.3
8. Chris Carpenter, 18.3
9. Dallas Braden, 18.3
10. Jake Westbrook, 18.3
11. Roy Halladay, 18.5
12. Chris Volstad, 18.6
13. Justin Masterson, 18.6
14. Josh Johnson, 18.7
15. Rick Porcello, 18.7
16. Anibal Sanchez, 18.7
17. Colby Lewis, 18.9
18. Joe Saunders, 19.1
19. Ubaldo Jimenez, 19.2
20. Adam Wainwright, 19.2
91. Matt Garza, 25.7
90. Clay Buchholz, 24.6
89. A.J. Burnett, 24.2
88. CC Sabathia, 24.2
87. Phil Hughes, 23.0
86. Jon Lester, 22.7
85. Javier Vazquez, 22.7
84. Tommy Hanson, 22.4
83. Kevin Correia, 22.3
82. Yovani Gallardo, 22.3
81. Hiroki Kuroda, 22.2
80. Scott Feldman, 21.9
79. Scott Baker, 21.9
78. Brandon Morrow, 21.9
77. Ian Kennedy, 21.8
76. Kevin Millwood, 21.8
75. Jon Garland, 21.8
74. Johan Santana, 21.7
73. Dave Bush, 21.6
72. Edwin Jackson, 21.5
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 14, 2010 12:38 AM EST up reply actions
Interesting that
Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Coke, and Ian Kennedy made this list of slower pitchers. Something’s going on with the Yankees. I wonder if this is taught along the way…
"These are thin mints. I put them in the freezer. My favorites. So good."
--Reds outfielder Adam Dunn, on the girl scout cookies he keeps in his locker
Quick pitching must be an A's organizational thing
Anderson doesn’t show up on that list but only because of not enough pitches; same with Mazzaro (no longer an A, but was last year). Braden and Cahill are in the top 10 among qualified guys. That’s four-fifths of last year’s rotation.
Well, if nothing else, maybe Curt Young can at least shake the Boston pitchers out of their torpid slowness to the plate.
"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.
Ray Fosse stated during a game exactly this.
He even cited “Willie” Santiago Casilla as a guy who rubbed the organization the wrong way his slow laid back approach between pitches.
Wow! Garza is the slowest among starters!
I must say I’m surprised, having watched most every one of his games this year. I guess time flies while you watch all the spitting and sweat wiping.
A DRaysBay writer from Cubs Stats and Twitter @BradleyWoodrum
I just want to add
That this is absolutely excellent work. Thanks so much for sharing this on BtB!
On Twitter: @baseballtwit
Thank you very much!
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 14, 2010 11:54 AM EST up reply actions
I'm surprised the Big Nyquil isn't on there
Part of the reason he got that nickname is because people would fall asleep between his pitches.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Best nickname ever?
I think so.
The baseball season doesn't have to end! Create your own players, coach your own teams, and join your friends in THE premier baseball MMO. Two Out Rally opens October 25th!
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Nyquil is 221st out of the 295
Great nickname.
by Lucas Apostoleris on Nov 16, 2010 3:35 PM EST up reply actions
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