First Pitch Hacking?
Grab a snack and a refreshing beverage for this one. If you are like me, you love plate patience and in most cases absolutely abhor first pitch swinging. Perhaps because they frustrate me so, I tend to key in on them and notice them more, especially when they're done by one of my whipping boys, Yuniesky Betancourt or Kenji Johjima. Over the course of this amazingly frustrating season I had acquired the impression that the Mariners must be one of the most swing happy teams, and markedly first pitch swing happy, in all of baseball.
It's been said that the true mark of intelligence lies in knowing that you really don't know anything. I try to take that to heart often and is part of my motivation for seeking out data behind my initial impressions and you can rest assured that I wasn't going to let this hunch go untested.
HYPOTHESIS: The Mariners swing at more first pitches than most teams.
MEANS OF TESTING HYPOTHESIS: The hours upon hours of time that I put in building a database of all pitches pays off as this hypothesis can be tested rather easily with just a single well-constructed database query. I will simply look at all pitches that start a plate appearance, keep that number as a denominator and for the numerator filter out pitches that were taken for either a ball or strike. That provides me with the percentage of first pitches that are offered at by the batter and then I simply group by the batting team and voila.
INITIAL RESULTS: Surprising; and not in the sarcastic sort of way. I mean actually surprising. Take a look (through play 3 June 2008):
| Team | Swing% | Team | Swing% | Team | Swing% | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLE | 0.2093 | WAS | 0.2635 | COL | 0.2923 | ||
| SEA | 0.2186 | NYA | 0.2658 | HOU | 0.2945 | ||
| TOR | 0.2241 | BAL | 0.2671 | ANA | 0.2953 | ||
| PIT | 0.2268 | DET | 0.2677 | SLN | 0.2966 | ||
| BOS | 0.2321 | CHN | 0.2732 | CIN | 0.2968 | ||
| MIL | 0.2520 | ARI | 0.2763 | SDN | 0.3014 | ||
| LAN | 0.2562 | FLO | 0.2769 | TEX | 0.3019 | ||
| PHI | 0.2578 | CHA | 0.2852 | ATL | 0.3123 | ||
| OAK | 0.2581 | SFN | 0.2895 | TBA | 0.3134 | ||
| NYN | 0.2623 | MIN | 0.2916 | KCA | 0.3209 |
The Mariners swing at the first pitch less often than any team in baseball except for the Indians. It is literally the exact opposite of what I expected and sent me scurrying back to try to see if I did something wrong in querying the database. I tore it down, rebuilt it, tried it on paper, every time I arrived at the same end result.
This isn't a meaningless range either. The Major League average is over 27% so the Mariners are just under 6% below that mark or roughly one in every 17 plate appearances which is more than twice per game. And that's just from average, it's roughly double those figures to the spot of where I thought the Mariners would be residing. So who is driving this? Here's a breakdown of just the Mariners:
| Player | Swing% | PA |
|---|---|---|
| Greg Norton | 0.1111 | 18 |
| Jose Lopez | 0.1270 | 252 |
| Brad Wilkerson | 0.1618 | 68 |
| Jamie Burke | 0.1667 | 42 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | 0.1716 | 268 |
| Jose Vidro | 0.1722 | 180 |
| Miguel Cairo | 0.1803 | 61 |
| Raul Ibanez | 0.1928 | 249 |
| Richie Sexson | 0.2389 | 180 |
| Willie Bloomquist | 0.2609 | 46 |
| Adrian Beltre | 0.2664 | 244 |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | 0.2714 | 210 |
| LEAGUE AVERAGE | 0.2721 | 68174 |
| Mike Morse | 0.2727 | 11 |
| Kenji Johjima | 0.2793 | 179 |
| Wladimir Balentien | 0.2871 | 101 |
| Jeff Clement | 0.3750 | 56 |
| Jeremy Reed | 0.4000 | 30 |
| Charlton Jimerson | 1.0000 | 1 |
Now you're are just screwing with me right? Yuni is actually below average at swinging at the first pitch? It's baffling, it's totally unexpected and that is why you do the analysis instead of relying on gut feelings.
Not all of this is surprising; we've been noting Jose Lopez's (forced) patience on first pitches all season. Richie Sexson often doesn't offer at the first pitch because he seems to realize that he can't catch up to a Tim Wakefield fastball and thus usually tries to work the count, ditto Wilkerson. And Ichiro, for his swing happy reputation later in the count, does generally look at a pitch or two before he commences hacking.
Knowing that the Mariners are actually stingy on those first pitches is all well and good, but it raises further questions. Namely, are the Mariners actually exercising good plate discipline and laying off balls out of the zone or are they just a team full of Loafies; blindly staring at the first pitch go by no matter what? To answer that question, let's consider that a batter swinging at a pitch can end in one of three results: the hitter misses, the hitter fouls the pitch off or the hitter puts the ball in fair play. Ideally, hitters would only swing at a first pitch if there was a good reason to, i.e. a meatball so let's take a look at how often the pitch is a strike when a team swings.
Now, determining whether a pitch was a strike is easy in theory, more difficult in practice. Pitch F/X comes in handy here. Home plate is 17 inches wide so determining that part of the strike zone is easy, but the height of the strike zone is supposed to be variable, though as we've seen with Sexson, it doesn't actually seem to get adjusted well. For that, I took the average top and bottom of the strike zone across all MLB hitters and used that for the cutoff. Given those strike zone dimensions here's a table showing how often a pitch is a strike when the team swings:
| Swinging Strike | Fouled Off | Batted Fair | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Str% | Rank | Team | Str% | Rank | Team | Str% | Rank | ||
| ANA | 28.30% | 30 | ANA | 56.10% | 30 | ANA | 67.80% | 20 | ||
| ARI | 42.40% | 23 | ARI | 64.10% | 17 | ARI | 71.30% | 14 | ||
| ATL | 48.00% | 9 | ATL | 64.70% | 15 | ATL | 71.60% | 13 | ||
| BAL | 44.70% | 18 | BAL | 61.80% | 25 | BAL | 70.20% | 16 | ||
| BOS | 35.60% | 29 | BOS | 62.40% | 22 | BOS | 67.70% | 21 | ||
| CHA | 52.60% | 2 | CHA | 69.40% | 5 | CHA | 73.60% | 7 | ||
| CHN | 47.50% | 13 | CHN | 70.40% | 2 | CHN | 73.40% | 8 | ||
| CIN | 42.90% | 21 | CIN | 68.30% | 9 | CIN | 70.10% | 17 | ||
| CLE | 50.00% | 7 | CLE | 69.40% | 6 | CLE | 66.50% | 25 | ||
| COL | 47.80% | 10 | COL | 68.70% | 7 | COL | 72.30% | 12 | ||
| DET | 47.60% | 12 | DET | 62.80% | 21 | DET | 72.50% | 11 | ||
| FLO | 37.40% | 28 | FLO | 59.20% | 29 | FLO | 65.80% | 29 | ||
| HOU | 44.60% | 19 | HOU | 62.10% | 23 | HOU | 76.00% | 3 | ||
| KCA | 46.00% | 17 | KCA | 63.20% | 20 | KCA | 76.70% | 1 | ||
| LAN | 50.40% | 6 | LAN | 68.50% | 8 | LAN | 73.00% | 9 | ||
| MIL | 47.30% | 14 | MIL | 68.20% | 10 | MIL | 75.90% | 4 | ||
| MIN | 43.20% | 20 | MIN | 64.40% | 16 | MIN | 67.20% | 23 | ||
| NYA | 50.00% | 7 | NYA | 70.40% | 3 | NYA | 72.90% | 10 | ||
| NYN | 52.50% | 3 | NYN | 63.30% | 19 | NYN | 70.10% | 18 | ||
| OAK | 51.50% | 4 | OAK | 68.10% | 11 | OAK | 74.20% | 6 | ||
| PHI | 41.00% | 25 | PHI | 61.20% | 27 | PHI | 67.20% | 24 | ||
| PIT | 62.10% | 1 | PIT | 68.10% | 12 | PIT | 74.40% | 5 | ||
| SDN | 46.30% | 15 | SDN | 70.00% | 4 | SDN | 66.30% | 26 | ||
| SEA | 42.50% | 22 | SEA | 61.70% | 26 | SEA | 70.70% | 15 | ||
| SFN | 41.90% | 24 | SFN | 66.50% | 14 | SFN | 68.50% | 19 | ||
| SLN | 50.80% | 5 | SLN | 72.30% | 1 | SLN | 76.20% | 2 | ||
| TBA | 40.30% | 27 | TBA | 61.90% | 24 | TBA | 64.40% | 30 | ||
| TEX | 47.60% | 11 | TEX | 66.70% | 13 | TEX | 67.40% | 22 | ||
| TOR | 40.80% | 26 | TOR | 64.00% | 18 | TOR | 66.20% | 27 | ||
| WAS | 46.00% | 16 | WAS | 60.60% | 28 | WAS | 65.80% | 28 | ||
| MLB | 45.50% | MLB | 65.40% | MLB | 70.50% | |||||
If a hitter swings and misses, there's a greater than 50% chance that the pitch was out of the zone. Those odds decrease as a hitter is able to make a contact and lastly, keep it in play. That's pretty intuitive, but there's also some interesting patterns across these columns. Recall that St. Louis is one of the most swing happy teams in baseball but look at these ranks across type; fifth, first and second. For the most part, Cardinals hitters are at least swinging at first pitch strikes. The Mariners? Not so much. The Mariners are stingy at swinging on the first pitch, but when they do swing they are overall worse than league average at choosing pitches in the zone to do it on.
For swings and misses and foul balls the story ends there, but there's an additional piece of information to look at on balls put in fair play; the outcome of said play. Adding up all the hits and total bases of those at bats here is a table presenting each team's average and slugging percentage on those first pitch, separated by whether the pitch was a strike or ball.
| Strike | Ball | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | N | AVG | SLG | Team | N | AVG | SLG | |
| ANA | 200 | 0.345 | 0.525 | ANA | 95 | 0.253 | 0.347 | |
| ARI | 189 | 0.381 | 0.683 | ARI | 76 | 0.289 | 0.434 | |
| ATL | 234 | 0.363 | 0.598 | ATL | 93 | 0.301 | 0.366 | |
| BAL | 184 | 0.239 | 0.418 | BAL | 78 | 0.269 | 0.385 | |
| BOS | 182 | 0.319 | 0.533 | BOS | 87 | 0.322 | 0.437 | |
| CHA | 206 | 0.311 | 0.544 | CHA | 74 | 0.297 | 0.486 | |
| CHN | 201 | 0.373 | 0.537 | CHN | 73 | 0.342 | 0.534 | |
| CIN | 204 | 0.279 | 0.475 | CIN | 87 | 0.287 | 0.379 | |
| CLE | 131 | 0.351 | 0.580 | CLE | 66 | 0.288 | 0.394 | |
| COL | 180 | 0.350 | 0.550 | COL | 69 | 0.290 | 0.391 | |
| DET | 179 | 0.397 | 0.615 | DET | 68 | 0.368 | 0.471 | |
| FLO | 154 | 0.364 | 0.727 | FLO | 80 | 0.300 | 0.463 | |
| HOU | 199 | 0.347 | 0.548 | HOU | 63 | 0.317 | 0.524 | |
| KCA | 240 | 0.338 | 0.500 | KCA | 73 | 0.301 | 0.370 | |
| LAN | 176 | 0.318 | 0.466 | LAN | 65 | 0.154 | 0.246 | |
| MIL | 183 | 0.377 | 0.585 | MIL | 58 | 0.155 | 0.224 | |
| MIN | 197 | 0.299 | 0.508 | MIN | 96 | 0.313 | 0.396 | |
| NYA | 194 | 0.320 | 0.577 | NYA | 72 | 0.278 | 0.375 | |
| NYN | 185 | 0.319 | 0.524 | NYN | 79 | 0.291 | 0.418 | |
| OAK | 178 | 0.292 | 0.489 | OAK | 62 | 0.306 | 0.468 | |
| PHI | 182 | 0.357 | 0.610 | PHI | 89 | 0.303 | 0.517 | |
| PIT | 189 | 0.312 | 0.540 | PIT | 65 | 0.277 | 0.415 | |
| SDN | 197 | 0.305 | 0.503 | SDN | 100 | 0.300 | 0.420 | |
| SEA | 162 | 0.327 | 0.481 | SEA | 67 | 0.224 | 0.388 | |
| SFN | 187 | 0.332 | 0.668 | SFN | 86 | 0.279 | 0.337 | |
| SLN | 227 | 0.357 | 0.678 | SLN | 71 | 0.197 | 0.254 | |
| TBA | 179 | 0.302 | 0.453 | TBA | 99 | 0.364 | 0.465 | |
| TEX | 207 | 0.420 | 0.671 | TEX | 100 | 0.340 | 0.550 | |
| TOR | 153 | 0.346 | 0.503 | TOR | 78 | 0.231 | 0.256 | |
| WAS | 183 | 0.251 | 0.333 | WAS | 95 | 0.221 | 0.284 | |
| MLB | 5662 | 0.333 | 0.548 | MLB | 2364 | 0.285 | 0.402 | |
The Rangers punish those first pitches when they put them into play regardless of if it's in the zone or not as do the Diamondbacks. The Mariners really struggle here compared to the rest of the league, but it is worth noting just how well the league as a whole does on those first pitch strikes and illustrates an important point.
We all know by heart the pitching mantra of getting ahead in the count and the oft-repeated number of first pitch strikes thrown to hitters. You might even have an awareness of how beneficial it actually is for a pitcher to throw strike one as opposed to ball one. In case you didn't; the average hitter has a .737 OPS. If the count goes to 1-0, the average hitter now posts a .838 OPS. If the count goes to 0-1, the average hitter now posts just a .616 OPS. (Source: Baseball-Reference).
Just knowing that would give you the impression that it's important beyond belief for a pitcher to throw a first pitch strike, and while it is important, it's leaving out a side effect of throwing first pitch strikes; they get swung at. And if they get hit, they do so at an .881 OPS clip. Unless you play for the Mariners.
APPENDIX 1
When a team looks at the first pitch, how often is it a strike?
| Team | Strike% | Rank | Team | Strike% | Rank | Team | Strike% | Rank | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANA | 42.15% | 21 | DET | 41.69% | 23 | PHI | 41.56% | 24 | ||
| ARI | 42.37% | 19 | FLO | 44.24% | 6 | PIT | 45.68% | 2 | ||
| ATL | 38.17% | 30 | HOU | 42.38% | 18 | SDN | 41.75% | 22 | ||
| BAL | 43.09% | 15 | KCA | 40.83% | 25 | SEA | 43.32% | 10 | ||
| BOS | 44.92% | 4 | LAN | 43.27% | 11 | SFN | 43.05% | 16 | ||
| CHA | 42.24% | 20 | MIL | 45.78% | 1 | SLN | 39.46% | 29 | ||
| CHN | 40.20% | 28 | MIN | 42.45% | 17 | TBA | 43.23% | 12 | ||
| CIN | 40.54% | 27 | NYA | 43.72% | 8 | TEX | 43.14% | 14 | ||
| CLE | 44.58% | 5 | NYN | 40.62% | 26 | TOR | 45.06% | 3 | ||
| COL | 43.64% | 9 | OAK | 43.21% | 13 | WAS | 43.88% | 7 |
If you peruse this table you'll see there appears to be a pattern that teams that do not swing often at the first pitch (consult the first table in this article) seem to see a higher percentage of called strikes on those first pitches that they do take. Running a simple correlation between the two ordinal rankings shows a correlation of -0.61 which is pretty strong.
Finally, one more table, this time, ignoring everything, what's the likelihood that the first pitch thrown is in the strike zone. Again, I'm using the definition of the strike zone that I outlined in the main post.
| Team | Strike% | Rank | Team | Strike% | Rank | Team | Strike% | Rank | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANA | 41.1% | 30 | DET | 45.2% | 7 | PHI | 41.8% | 26 | ||
| ARI | 44.6% | 12 | FLO | 41.5% | 28 | PIT | 46.0% | 2 | ||
| ATL | 41.8% | 26 | HOU | 44.6% | 11 | SDN | 42.8% | 24 | ||
| BAL | 43.2% | 23 | KCA | 44.7% | 10 | SEA | 44.0% | 17 | ||
| BOS | 44.7% | 9 | LAN | 43.6% | 20 | SFN | 44.4% | 14 | ||
| CHA | 45.6% | 6 | MIL | 45.8% | 3 | SLN | 45.7% | 5 | ||
| CHN | 44.4% | 13 | MIN | 42.6% | 25 | TBA | 44.0% | 15 | ||
| CIN | 43.7% | 19 | NYA | 43.5% | 21 | TEX | 44.8% | 8 | ||
| CLE | 43.4% | 22 | NYN | 41.3% | 29 | TOR | 47.1% | 1 | ||
| COL | 45.7% | 4 | OAK | 44.0% | 16 | WAS | 43.9% | 18 |
So while the Mariners do see a higher percentage of called strikes, they actually see less pitches in the zone overall on those first pitches. That again supports that more often than average, the Mariners, when they do swing at the first pitch, do so on pitches out of the zone. That's bad for business.
19 recs |
65 comments
Comments
Why must you challenge my brain like this?
It’s Friday man.
Seriously though, wonderful work.
I like midgets more than I should.
by Thingray on Jun 6, 2008 12:04 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Excellent work....
the thing that leaves me wondering about the Mariners in regards to their reluctance to swing at the first pitch….. we do know the M’s are not exactly known for pitch recognition…. so when they don’t swing at the first pitch what’s the percentage of called strikes and called balls on the first pitch.
I’m wondering if like Lopez alot of them are taking the first pitch no matter what, or if some of them actually have a clue.
Midnight Baseball - No Lights - Only in Alaska!
by MfaninAlaska on Jun 6, 2008 12:25 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
The thing that jumps out at me is the variety in the number of first-pitch strikes some teams see.
Look at Boston’s numbers – they’re below average Str% in all three swing categories. They’re just not being thrown as many first pitch strikes as other teams.
I like using semi-colons; they make me feel smart.
by Llewdor on Jun 6, 2008 12:32 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Okay, we know Jeff works for Senomyx, but what do you do, Matthew?
Where in the hell do you find time to do these kind of analyses?
Much appreciated on the work. If I ever become a GM of a baseball team, you, Jeff, and Dave have a job.
by Wilder. on Jun 6, 2008 12:36 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
According to THT
Matthew Carruth previously worked for ESPN.com. He has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and minors in Ancient History, Economics and Statistics. He currently works as a software engineer in Seattle.
Maybe he has a really boring Software Engineering job, or a place with lots of downtime. I work as a SE as well and if I had the passion/diligence/initiative of Matthew I have more than enough time at work to run Perl scripts against databases.
The poster formerly known as Matt.
by bluemax on Jun 6, 2008 2:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
It's about 1/4 that
and 3/4 I have no life except for this. I go home from work and write (code or otherwise) for another 5 or so hours every night.
When Jeff says that writing about baseball is another full time job it’s not an exaggeration. I spend at least 40 hours a week working on baseball stuff whether it be stuff I do for THT (both writing and working behind the scenes on stuff the public never sees), writing here, doing other random work (I edited for RotoWorld for example) or coding/writing stuff that so far nobody outside of Jeff or Graham have seen.
And that doesn’t even count the time I spend actually watching games.
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 2:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
...and the drinking?
Is that ANOTHER full time job?
by marc w on Jun 6, 2008 2:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
You should invest in a time machine
by Last Fan Of Jose Lopez on Jun 6, 2008 2:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I write less on baseball than either Matthew, Graham or Jeff
And even the wrap-ups can take 2-3 hours a night.
by Gomez on Jun 6, 2008 2:45 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
At least you and I are rewarded handsomely for our efforts
by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 6, 2008 2:48 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I picture a closet in your apartment that is filled with plastic poker chips you've written "rec" on
by Last Fan Of Jose Lopez on Jun 6, 2008 2:51 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
At least its better than JI's closet.
He might have more chips in there but they all say “rce” on them
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 2:58 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
You got to go to a Pitch F/X conference.
What more could you nerds ask for?
by Graham on Jun 6, 2008 2:52 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
The courage to make smalltalk with Mat Olkin
by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 6, 2008 2:52 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
You sat at a table with him
I’m amazed you didn’t both faint
by Graham on Jun 6, 2008 2:54 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I would also ask for the ability to understand what people were talking about at the PITCHf/x conference
by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 6, 2008 2:56 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
And more of a physicist?
No thanks, I prefer my science to be enjoyable.
by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 6, 2008 3:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
How is it not enjoyable?
Today Graham and I were discussing a physics article about the possibility of a universe that existed before ours and why time moves in one direction only.
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 3:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I prefer my science to be falsifiable?
I don’t know where I’m going with this.
by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 6, 2008 3:23 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
My excuse is that I don't read your posts
by Jeff Sullivan on Jun 6, 2008 3:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
(I finally get to use the line!)
See you next weekend the war
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 3:43 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I giggled like a schoolgirl.
I wish I were kidding.
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 2:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Lopez, Ichiro, and Yuni are great contact hitters
If you look at the 2008 contact % at Fangraphs of all MLB batters, Lopez is #6 at 92%, Ichiro is at 91.8% and #9, while Yuni is at 90.3% and #14.
However, it ain’t all rosy because Yuni is at #15 at swinging at balls out of the zone at 33.2%, but he does hit 83% of those out of zone balls.
The M’s seem to gathered a collection of high percentage contact hitters, albeit at the expense of power.
Incidentally Juan Pierre is #1 with a 98.17% contact rate.
by Klatzy on Jun 6, 2008 12:43 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Awesome graphs and study
I wish I had the time to do this kind of stuff (and I wish I had the knowledge). Awesome Post. I can’t get over it.
by Edgar for Mayor on Jun 6, 2008 1:14 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Rangers perspective
The Rangers, under Rudy Jaramillo, have preached being aggressive on the first pitch. Now, I’m not sure how much of this is adjusted when they face pitchers who throw out of the zone. But I have heard it mentioned by the players and commentators that they try to “stay aggressive” throughout the at bat. It’s only been since Jon Daniels has gained more power in the organization (that he now seems to be losing to Nolan Ryan, but that’s another story) that the Rangers started putting a premium on hitters who have a higher OBP (and I assume, therefore, are more patient). This can be seen in who they’ve picked up or traded for in the last year:
BA/OBP (2008)
Salty: .279/.417
Milton Bradley: .337/.449
Hamilton: .321/.369
Ok, so Hamilton doesn’t really fit that, but then again, he’s also slugging .611 for an OPS+ of 164.
Here’s my question: Is there a correlation between “patient” teams/players and what they do with 2 strikes against them? Specifically, I’m wondering if more patient teams (or teams that make pitchers throw more balls, thus getting to relief pitching sooner) foul off more balls or take more often. I’m not sure if there is a way to answer that question, but you obviously have more tools at your disposal than I do.
by GhettoBear04 on Jun 6, 2008 1:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Same kinda thing with the Dbacks and Rick Schu.
Especially with Conor Jackson, who Schu thought that last year he was being too patient and letting to many meat pitching go by. So Conor has been more agressive this year and it’s paid off. Though it’s not like it’s effected his ability to get on base much. He still has a 24/14 BB/K and a .301/.400 line.
I hate baseball.
by Goose on Jun 6, 2008 6:43 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Neato
I would suspect that false patience is worse than no patience.
by JI on Jun 6, 2008 1:19 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
You are a myth terrorist
Because you just blew up a bunch of preconceptions.
by Gomez on Jun 6, 2008 1:21 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
And I just fucked up a small part thanks to my insanely complex database schema.
Fix coming. It’s related to Table 2 only.
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 1:23 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Ok, fixed. In case anyone's interested:
I forgot to match up teams between all of my tables while compiling the second table, I just went by batter ID and thus Wilkerson, since he has two entries in the players table (for SEA and TOR) and so all the pitches matched twice and I had him offering at 22 pitches instead of 11 as he actually did. When I spot checked the data, it was right because I was simply pulling pitches it labeled as an offer and checking against game logs. I didn’t notice that it was listing each pitch twice. This was limited to Wilk because he’s the only hitter to have two player table entries.
End result: I doubled Wilk’s offer rate in Table 2.
by Matthew on Jun 6, 2008 1:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I would just like to point out
that Matthew gets as many recs for hours worth of work, as I do for a simple typographical error.
by JI on Jun 6, 2008 1:33 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Look at me!
I’m typing with my ass!!!!
I like midgets more than I should.
by Thingray on Jun 6, 2008 2:12 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
We already new that!
:)
I like midgets more than I should.
by Thingray on Jun 6, 2008 2:27 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don't even know what that's supposed to mean
by Last Fan Of Jose Lopez on Jun 6, 2008 2:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
touch typing = not looking
...but Matthew normally looks at the keyboard to type? Hrm.
by planB on Jun 6, 2008 2:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I was thinking it meant "tough typing," like you can set levels of difficulty to your keyboard
On the higher levels, the keys actually switch letters as ywr tnpa
by Last Fan Of Jose Lopez on Jun 6, 2008 2:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Clement at 37.5%?
I thought he was supposed to be patient. A little too eager to prove to the team why he deserved to be called up? Or just small sample size?
by Last Fan Of Jose Lopez on Jun 6, 2008 2:43 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Probably a little from Column A and Column B.
I remember his first game in Cleveland, he swung at the first two pitches he saw.
by Jed MC on Jun 6, 2008 2:50 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Seems like the Ms don't really tire out a pitcher though
Where can I find pitches seen per team per at bat?
by nwtrev on Jun 6, 2008 2:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Thanks. We're not as bad as I would have figured
Not surprising based on all of Matthew’s work above. I find it ironic in light of the 3-n-out, 6 pitch inning we had against Saunders the other night that the Angels see fewer pitches than we do.
by nwtrev on Jun 6, 2008 4:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

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