Which Yanks Whiffed The Most/Least In ’08?
Posted by Steve L. on January 23rd, 2009 · Comments (15)
Seeing Rich Lederer’s K/100P study on pitchers, I decided to see what would happen if we applied the same look at Yankees batters in 2008. Here’s what I found:
Player PA K P/PA P Seen K/100P Jus. Christian 43 4 3.4 146 2.74 Robinson Cano 634 65 3.4 2156 3.02 Johnny Damon 623 82 4.1 2554 3.21 Hideki Matsui 378 47 3.8 1436 3.27 Derek Jeter 668 85 3.7 2472 3.44 Melky Cabrera 453 58 3.7 1676 3.46 Bobby Abreu 684 109 4.3 2941 3.71 Al. Gonzalez 58 8 3.5 203 3.94 Ivan Rodriguez 101 15 3.5 354 4.24 Jason Giambi 565 111 4.3 2430 4.57 Shelley Duncan 65 13 4.3 280 4.65 Chad Moeller 103 18 3.5 361 4.99 Jorge Posada 195 38 3.9 761 5.00 Jose Molina 297 52 3.5 1040 5.00 Alex Rodriguez 594 117 3.9 2317 5.05 Xavier Nady 247 48 3.7 914 5.25 Brett Gardner 141 30 3.9 550 5.46 Cody Ransom 51 12 4.0 204 5.88 Richie Sexson 35 10 4.7 165 6.08 Morgan Ensberg 80 22 4.1 328 6.71 Wilson Betemit 198 56 3.7 733 7.64 Juan Miranda 14 4 3.1 43 9.22 Chris Stewart 3 1 3.3 10 10.10 Fr. Cervelli 5 3 4.0 20 15.00
If you need a guy to make contact, Cano, Damon, Matsui, Jeter and Melky are pretty good at it. And, clearly, this season, Brett Gardner needs to do better at making contact. And, it probably wouldn’t hurt Nady or A-Rod to improve their numbers, here, from last year too.
Is last year’s 3.9 consistent with the rest of A-Rod’s career? If so, then I’m not worried about A-Rod. He’s producing quite nicely for the team and even a “down” year for him in 2008 he was far and away their best hitter (not even close).
FWIW, as a Yankee, A-Rod has consistently seen 3.8 to 3.9 P/PA. I can’t say what his K/100P numbers are – those I have not calculated.
OK, you made me look, here are A-Rod’s K/100P rates as a Yankee:
Year * K/100P
2004 * 4.81
2005 * 4.98
2006 * 5.43
2007 * 4.46
2008 * 5.05
Is last year’s 3.9 consistent with the rest of A-Rod’s career? If so, then I’m not worried about A-Rod.
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You were worried about A-Rod? Why?
The problem with Cano and Melky is that they make contact too early in the count, swinging at pitcher’s pitches. If either one learned to work the count, they’d get better results. Granted of course that Cano had pretty good results previously. But even Yankee partisans have to agree he is too often up there hacking.
It seems as though there’s not a whole lot of correlation here between having a good K/100P and actually being good. After all, Cano and Melky rank well by this measure, and we all know how they did last year. So this is sort of interesting, but not terribly useful.
Though, it might be more useful for comparing individual seasons for individual players, as A-Rod’s numbers seem to indicate.
What I think K/100P for batters shows you is who has a hole in their swing and who does not – but, it doesn’t tell you that the guy without the hole is a good hitter. It just tells you that he’s got good eye-hand coordination. And, maybe, with better pitch selection, he could be a good hitter.
Andt, maybe, just maybe, for the guy with the high K/100P rate, the guy with the hole in his swing, it tells you that you can get him out – even if he is a good hitter – if you make the right pitch.
I’d like to see Manny’s K/100P rate. Maybe I’ll look at that later.
“Interestingly, the average starter’s workload has been roughly 100 pitches per start for the past several years. As such, K/100P gives us additional insight as to the approximate number of strikeouts per start.”
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So, approximate number of strikeouts per start? Gotcha.
That’s the point of K/100P for pitchers.
Now, what’s the point of K/100P for hitters?
Individual hitters don’t see 100P/G on average, or anywhere near the vicinity.
Why the arbitrary 100P for hitters?
Is it just because 100P is a nice round number?
Help me understand this because I’m confused.
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I’ll take a strikeout over a GIDP anyday.
Pretty hard to end an inning/rally with a GIDP when there are two outs.
Pretty hard to hurt an inning/rally with a GIDP when there’s runners on second and third and no one on first.
But, a whiff will end/hurt them every time.
~~Help me understand this because I’m confused.~~
It just shows you something above K/PA or K/AB. It shows you if guys who take a lot of pitches whiff a lot or not. And, it shows you if guys who don’t see a lot of pitches whiff a lot or not.
So, it’s similar to the pitching version in terms of having a 100P rate, but that’s where the similarities end since it sheds the context of a per game basis.
I think this is where I’m getting tangled up.
Abreu seeing almost 3000 pitches…Maybe a one year deal?
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