In the comments on my post about plate discipline the question of "holes" was brought up. Specifically the idea is whether or not there are hitters who more consistently swing and miss on pitches that are in the strike zone. Well, with the data now becoming available we can add that to our list of things to look at.
The metric is called Square and is defined as the percentage of balls made contact with that were swung at in the strike zone. So if Brian Giles swung at 105 pitches in the strike zone and made contact with 101 of them his Square would be .962. Now perhaps "Square" isn't the best term since I've also included foul balls here but you get the idea. In any case here are here are the percentages for all hitters (and keep in mind we don't have all hitters but only those who've batted in the nine parks in which the PITCHf/x system is running).
Name Stand Pitches SinZ Square
Derek Jeter R 188 52 1.000
Chone Figgins L 144 42 1.000
Placido Polanco R 117 31 1.000
Esteban German R 126 27 1.000
David Dejesus L 209 55 0.982
David Ortiz L 224 50 0.980
Dan Johnson L 411 75 0.973
Jay Payton R 105 37 0.973
Maicer Izturis L 179 32 0.969
Coco Crisp L 168 31 0.968
Rafael Furcal L 406 90 0.967
Juan Pierre L 462 118 0.966
Reggie Willits R 135 28 0.964
Ichiro Suzuki L 552 109 0.963
Trot Nixon L 111 27 0.963
Brian Giles L 381 105 0.962
Kevin Millar R 108 25 0.960
Mark Grudzielanek R 186 48 0.958
Barry Bonds L 122 24 0.958
Ryan Sweeney L 126 22 0.955
Casey Kotchman L 466 106 0.953
Matt Murton R 101 21 0.952
Kenny Lofton L 569 144 0.951
Mike Lowell R 200 60 0.950
Albert Pujols R 108 20 0.950
John McDonald R 170 39 0.949
Mark Ellis R 472 114 0.947
Darin Erstad L 372 74 0.946
Frank Thomas R 517 108 0.944
Pablo Ozuna R 129 36 0.944
Miguel Tejada R 148 36 0.944
Ben Broussard L 126 36 0.944
Ramon Martinez R 124 35 0.943
David Dellucci L 111 34 0.941
Johnny Damon L 190 49 0.939
Lyle Overbay L 381 96 0.938
Frank Catalanotto L 330 78 0.936
Ramon Hernandez R 115 31 0.935
Yuniesky Betancourt R 376 106 0.934
Geoff Blum L 148 29 0.931
Andre Ethier L 413 128 0.930
Shannon Stewart R 464 126 0.929
Jason Kendall R 423 112 0.929
Ryan Zimmerman R 114 28 0.929
Mike Sweeney R 131 41 0.927
Alexis Rios R 467 108 0.926
Brian Mccann L 280 53 0.925
Hideki Matsui L 186 53 0.925
Nick Markakis L 168 52 0.923
Luis Gonzalez L 462 116 0.922
Erick Aybar L 235 64 0.922
Kevin Youkilis R 219 51 0.922
Raul Ibanez L 514 126 0.921
Melvin Mora R 189 50 0.920
Orlando Cabrera R 518 137 0.920
Mike Cuddyer R 155 37 0.919
Brian Roberts L 134 37 0.919
Jerry Hairston R 124 37 0.919
Robinson Cano L 171 36 0.917
Brendan Harris R 165 48 0.917
Nick Swisher R 149 24 0.917
Reggie Willits L 280 59 0.915
Ramon Vazquez L 184 47 0.915
Mark Derosa R 113 35 0.914
Ian Kinsler R 630 163 0.914
J.D. Drew L 184 46 0.913
Jamie Burke R 107 23 0.913
Jose Lopez R 382 102 0.912
Dustin Pedroia R 158 45 0.911
Ken Griffey Jr. L 109 22 0.909
Jose Vidro L 349 87 0.908
Julio Lugo R 226 65 0.908
Gary Sheffield R 168 32 0.906
Kenji Jojima R 284 95 0.905
Sean Casey L 101 21 0.905
Victor Martinez L 100 21 0.905
A.J. Pierzynski L 376 115 0.904
Marco Scutaro R 192 52 0.904
Grady Sizemore L 143 31 0.903
Bengie Molina R 106 31 0.903
Jorge Posada L 136 41 0.902
Gary Matthews Jr. L 449 102 0.902
Jeff Kent R 453 142 0.901
Garret Anderson L 262 50 0.900
Luis Castillo L 121 30 0.900
Tadahito Iguchi R 490 146 0.897
Michael Young R 628 193 0.896
Kelly Johnson L 427 85 0.894
Jermaine Dye R 467 119 0.891
Josh Bard L 308 91 0.890
Adrian Beltre R 441 126 0.889
Howie Kendrick R 165 45 0.889
Curtis Granderson L 147 35 0.886
Aaron Hill R 461 129 0.884
Magglio Ordonez R 150 43 0.884
Doug Mientkiewicz L 113 17 0.882
Paul Konerko R 489 116 0.879
Shea Hillenbrand R 330 91 0.879
Justin Morneau L 137 33 0.879
Edgar Renteria R 379 82 0.878
Willie Harris L 208 49 0.878
Nomar Garciaparra R 470 152 0.875
Carlos Guillen L 112 24 0.875
Scott Thorman L 230 47 0.872
Hank Blalock L 332 78 0.872
Brady Clark R 160 39 0.872
Ivan Rodriguez R 118 31 0.871
Matt Diaz R 191 53 0.868
Alfonso Soriano R 127 30 0.867
Jason Giambi L 130 30 0.867
Marlon Byrd R 174 44 0.864
Gerald Laird R 504 138 0.862
Andy Laroche R 127 29 0.862
Mark Teixeira R 169 43 0.860
Derrek Lee R 146 43 0.860
Chris Woodward R 154 49 0.857
Joe Crede R 376 104 0.856
Vladimir Guerrero R 408 97 0.856
Adam Lind L 374 110 0.855
Khalil Greene R 419 136 0.853
Alex Cintron L 119 34 0.853
Adrian Gonzalez L 641 163 0.853
Juan Uribe R 353 101 0.851
Jose Guillen R 423 121 0.851
Joshua Barfield R 115 40 0.850
Willie Bloomquist R 156 46 0.848
Royce Clayton R 264 78 0.846
Alex Gordon L 163 39 0.846
Aubrey Huff L 123 39 0.846
Robb Quinlan R 135 45 0.844
Bobby Crosby R 489 127 0.843
Chris Stewart R 103 38 0.842
Jose Cruz Jr. L 303 82 0.841
Russell Martin R 543 145 0.841
Travis Buck L 393 88 0.841
Marcus Giles R 504 156 0.840
Vernon Wells R 461 124 0.839
Wilson Betemit L 224 49 0.837
Manny Ramirez R 227 61 0.836
Brad Wilkerson L 263 60 0.833
Bobby Abreu L 225 60 0.833
Emil Brown R 153 36 0.833
Elijah Dukes R 208 47 0.830
Richie Sexson R 485 123 0.829
Kevin Kouzmanoff R 393 117 0.829
Ty Wigginton R 221 64 0.828
Mike Cameron R 589 157 0.828
Eric Chavez L 542 136 0.824
Tony Pena R 130 34 0.824
Jose Molina R 157 45 0.822
Casey Blake R 167 42 0.810
Delmon Young R 232 68 0.809
Jason Phillips R 236 67 0.806
Mark Teixeira L 517 102 0.804
Jeffrey Francoeur R 381 98 0.796
Jim Thome L 359 78 0.795
Gary Matthews Jr. R 118 24 0.792
Jose Cruz Jr. R 108 28 0.786
Milton Bradley L 135 46 0.783
Nick Swisher L 410 86 0.779
Michael Napoli R 349 85 0.776
Rob Mackowiak L 313 76 0.776
Troy Glaus R 353 76 0.776
Mark Teahen L 213 49 0.776
Victor Diaz R 159 49 0.776
Mike Piazza R 186 40 0.775
Carl Crawford L 242 62 0.774
Brandon Inge R 143 35 0.771
Matt Stairs L 202 51 0.765
Alex Rodriguez R 205 55 0.764
Hiram Bocachica R 118 25 0.760
Terrmel Sledge L 301 88 0.750
Rocco Baldelli R 135 32 0.750
Craig Monroe R 139 30 0.733
Craig Wilson R 105 26 0.731
Travis Hafner L 138 22 0.727
Sammy Sosa R 588 164 0.726
Andruw Jones R 433 112 0.723
B.J. Upton R 263 75 0.720
Chipper Jones L 194 39 0.718
Olmedo Saenz R 149 39 0.718
Carlos Pena L 184 46 0.717
Nelson Cruz R 374 100 0.700
Jack Cust L 318 66 0.697
Jason Smith L 103 28 0.679
Rob Bowen L 114 26 0.654
Russ Branyan L 164 49 0.612
Generally speaking the top of the list is populated with contact hitters while the bottom has more power hitters and free swingers as you might expect. A couple surprises to me anyway are David Ortiz and Dan Johnson so high in the list and Chipper Jones (batting left-handed) so low. The average is 87.2% which validates the feeling I always get, especially when attending a game in person, that when a pitch is in the strike zone a major league hitter usually takes advantage.
125x125_10off+copy.jpg)
2 comments:
Dan, if I might ask, which nine parks have the PITCH/fx system set up?
Those parks are: Texas, Atlanta, Anaheim, San Diego, Toronto, Oakland, Chicago (AL), Seattle, and Los Angeles (NL). The system has also at least been tested in Colorado, Detroit, St. Louis, and Washington.
Post a Comment