White Sox Pitching & Balls in Play

by The Cheat on Jan 19, 2006 1:11 AM CST in White Sox News

Today he uses Baseball Info Solutions data to create tables of a pitcher's balls in play. Of particular interest to us White Sox fans are the tables of Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia, and Mark Buehrle.

Studes makes a case for Garland having some effect on the fieldability of his balls in play, which is something we've discussed before. (Haloscan killed the comments at my old blog, so here's a similar discussion we had at Vince's.)

Also check out Studes' Batted Ball Tables for hitters from last week, and Mapping the Strike Zone that also use the Baseball Info Solutions data.

Baseball Info Solutions | THT: Pitcher Tables | THT: Batted Ball Tables | Exile in Wrigleyville: Mistaken Identity | The old place: Body Snatchers

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Sox batted balls

Hey Cheat, thanks for the link. I <3 you too. (???)

You might be interested in the same table for the White Sox as a team. Here's the link:

http://www.baseballgraphs.com/main/index.php/site/article/white_sox_batted_balls/

by studes on Jan 19, 2006 10:27 AM CST reply actions

white sox team table

Wow! That table would indicate that the Sox were actually really unlucky in 2004 as opposed to being really lucky in 2005. The very high run value on fly balls in '04 was the culprit. Some of this was secondary to an increased HR rate, but an increased HR rate from 10% to 12% doesn't seem enough to explain the vast difference in fly ball run value. There must have been lots of fly balls that became doubles singles and triples as well.

My first thought was "Were Carlos Lee and maggs that bad?" But if you go back to 2002 and 2003 the fly ball run values are back to normal. Maybe it was the ball carrying abnormally well that summer or maybe it was just plain bad luck.

by bhoov on Jan 19, 2006 2:23 PM CST reply actions

Blame Timo

AIM: SouthSideCheat

by The Cheat on Jan 19, 2006 3:19 PM CST up reply actions

Garland's BABIP graphs

care of Fangraphs

AIM: SouthSideCheat

by The Cheat on Jan 19, 2006 4:34 PM CST reply actions

garland

i remember a few years ago hearing hawk say, "garland leads the league in the double-play ball." i'm not into the depths of baseball knowledge as others around here, but does jon's being a sinkerballer produce more groundballs than another type of pitcher?

by cnobody on Jan 19, 2006 5:22 PM CST reply actions

Garland's GB rate

isn't much greater than league average. That's always been surprising given the reputation of his sinker.

In 2005 he was about 35th in baseball in Net DP (or double plays over expected). In 2004 & 2003, he was about 20th in baseball. In 2002 he was 3rd in baseball.

AIM: SouthSideCheat

by The Cheat on Jan 19, 2006 5:40 PM CST up reply actions