A Tale of Two Pitchers: New Pitch F/X Leaderboard at BtB
A tough call on whether to put this as a Fanpost or Fanshot. Not nearly as involved as most of my -posts, but I have more to say than just a -shot. Whatevs.
Anyway, Harry Pavlidis just posted updated Pitch F/X leaderboards over at Beyond The Boxscore. You may recall my discussing earlier versions in Gamethreads, and usually K-Lero's place on them. This current update is for starters only, so while Kiko is out of the discussion, you will notice one specific stat that jumps out as it pertains to the Fish.
If you scroll down the boards, you'll see a stat called SLGCON. As you may be able to decipher, this is the slugging percentage allowed on contact. Or in simpler terms, how hard a pitcher gets hit (when he gets hit, that is).
The starter with the lowest slugging percentage on contact? Joshua Michael Johnson, with a miniscule 0.388. He basically turns hitters into Chone Figgins, power-wise.
But the starter with the highest slugging percentage on contact? Carlos Enrique Nolasco. When hitters make contact on Nolasco, they're slugging 0.686. That's an easy one to put into perspective: there's only player in the history of baseball to slug .686 for a career: Babe Ruth, he of the .690. Heck, only fifty times has it ever been done in a single season.
Now obviously it's different, in that one is just on contact and the other is all balls. We're not talking "slugging percentage allowed" but just on balls put in play. Moreover, as you've probably read a million times (though less so lately), Ricky has been one of the most "unlucky" pitchers in baseball in terms of the runs you'd expect from a pitcher with his peripherals. Whether this explains how that's possible or why it may not matter is a topic for later, more in-depth discussion.
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Ahh, so that’s what SLGCON is. That makes sense. I pointed out earlier in my blog that this seems like the big difference between the Cy Young candidate and the 7+ ERA guy.
I’d have trouble figuring out why he’s getting hammered so much. Didn’t get to see too much of him earlier in the season, so I couldn’t tell qualitatively without digging through Pitch f/x. I can say he’s looked sharper now and is beginning to have his luck turn a bit. Still, the LD% is very high (24.something%, last I checked) so we need to start seeing more JJ-like ground balls for his balls in play.
Tonight he looked great, not surrendering much in the way of fly balls or line drives. Also kept his great peripherals. We may have last year’s Ricky back.
by SFiercex4 on Jun 25, 2009 1:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Yes, but that was April-May Ricky.
A gruesome Mr. Hyde of a pitcher who, hopefully, has been vanquished.
But now that he’s reverted back to Dr. Jeckyll, I’d bet June Ricky’s SLGCON is waaaay down.
by Fishcrazy on Jun 25, 2009 12:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

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