Odd Thoughts While Waiting for the Playoffs to Run...

[RonCo]

Whiling away a little time...I'm going to do this "feature" on a few posts/replies...

Have you ever wondered who gave up the most Intentional Walks in a season? Yeah, kinda an odd thing to wonder, but I was wondering it anyway...which says something, I suppose. But, did you know that fifteen pitchers offered 10 or more freebies this year? Here they are:

Code: Select all

Name	TM	IBB
José Cavazos	HNT	19
Dan West	VAN	15
Fergus Penntcock	HNT	15
Luis Espinoza	VAN	13
José Pérez	DM	13
Mario Contreras	HNT	13
Fred Poe	VAN	13
Jaime Moreno	HNT	12
Ray Perkins	VAN	12
Sergio Ramírez	DM	12
Pablo Figueroa	VAN	11
Cam Palácios	MTL	11
Bob Sanderson	JAX	11
Bert Hugill	VAN	11
Flint Colbert	SA	10

Huntsville and Vancouver...man...nine of the fifteen are from these guys.

[RonCo]

This got me to thinking about wild pitches. It seems like to have a bunch of wild pitches you probably need to put a lot of guys on base, and then, well...move them along. Here's the list of 14 pitchers who had 11 or more WP

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Name	TM	WP
Alfredo Contreras	SEA	18
Bob Corrigan	PHX	17
Dan Cannon	ATC	14
Stephen Clulow	NSH	14
Arthur Dempster	RCK	13
Juan Jose Ornelas	SA	13
Tim Oliver	YS9	13
Johnny Morin	EDM	13
Jorge Ortíz	VAL	12
Juan Nicto	NSH	12
Luis Gracía	CAL	12
Augusto Cruz	LBC	12
Harry Considine	PHX	11
Juan Rodríguez	RCK	11

I'm not particularly pleased to see Tim Oliver there, but the guy is certaily on the wild side. Which got me to wondering about the relation of BB/9 to WP/9. When I took all pitchers who recored at least 100 IP, then ran their WP/9 vs. BB/9 numbers I got a positive, but moderate correlation of .31. Not sure what it means, but, hey, it sounds like it's ok.

Here's the chart.

[usnspecialist]

given my seeming disdain for control based pitchers (and throwing my guys a lot of innings), im surprised to not see reed or Ramirez on the WP list.

[RonCo]

Let's talk about that sizzling topic: inherited runners. I pulled the top 15 pitchers who entered the game with the most guys on base. It ranged from Anastasio Lopez (74) to Hermengildo Padez (46).

Code: Select all

Name	TM	IR	IRS	%
Anastasio López	MEX	74	11	0.129411765
Augusto Cruz	LBC	69	14	0.168674699
José Féliz	LBC	64	13	0.168831169
Marko Efremov	RCK	62	8	0.114285714
Raúl Sánchez	CCJ	60	13	0.178082192
Chris Dougherty	SA	59	24	0.289156627
Harold Lane	MAD	52	10	0.161290323
Alphonse Salvarani	TWC	52	14	0.212121212
Germão Real	PHX	51	11	0.177419355
Ray Boswell	CAL	51	9	0.15
Ricardo Valera	MEX	47	14	0.229508197
Alan Domínguez	BRK	47	9	0.160714286
Dillon Young	CCJ	47	11	0.189655172
Andy Cantrell	JAX	46	12	0.206896552
Hermenegildo Padez	YS9	46	7	0.132075472

Lopez was fantastic at 13% (as was Padez). Only Rockville's Marko Efremov at 11% was better. On the bottom of the scale was San Antonio's Chris Dougherty, who let 29% of his 59 inherited runners score. Again, not sure what it means, but I note that none of these guys are the big star closers (Jacksonville's Andy Cantrell led this group with 9 saves). These are kind of meat and potatoe kind of bullpen guys who eat up the ugly innings. Make of that what you will.

[RonCo]

given my seeming disdain for control based pitchers (and throwing my guys a lot of innings), im surprised to not see reed or Ramirez on the WP list.

Ramirez threw 7 WP last year, Reed 6.

[usnspecialist]

given my seeming disdain for control based pitchers (and throwing my guys a lot of innings), im surprised to not see reed or Ramirez on the WP list.

Ramirez threw 7 WP last year, Reed 6.

with those numbers (and their control ratings), jose gamboa must be a god at blocking pitches.

[RonCo]

What else can we take a scan at...how about pitcher's ability to control the running game?

I took all pitchers, added their "Hold" ratings, and then tallied up the number of steals and CS against each "Hold" rating. In other words, while "Hold" may well limit the number of attempts, does it do anything to affect the CS% once a runner takes off?

The answer? ... Maybe a little

Here's the resulting table:

Code: Select all

Hold	SB	CS	SB%
1	57	32	0.640449438
2	265	162	0.620608899
3	211	99	0.680645161
4	826	379	0.685477178
5	999	480	0.675456389
6	995	516	0.658504302
7	995	560	0.639871383
8	1004	505	0.665341286
9	1019	543	0.652368758
10	571	328	0.635150167
11	445	242	0.647743814
			
Grand Total	7387	3846	

Ultimately, it seems to me that the catcher arm rating must play more in SB% defense than the pitcher's hold rating, but the data here isn't particularl powerful either way to my eyes. Doing a plot of the SB% by Hold, and adding a linear trendline gives you this:

[RonCo]

given my seeming disdain for control based pitchers (and throwing my guys a lot of innings), im surprised to not see reed or Ramirez on the WP list.

Ramirez threw 7 WP last year, Reed 6.

with those numbers (and their control ratings), jose gamboa must be a god at blocking pitches.

That would be an interesting piece of data to have (how well does C-Ability limit WP?)

[RonCo]

For closure, here are the 18 pitchers that gave up at least 45 SB in 2033:

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Name	TM	SB	CS	IP
José Trujillo	PHX	76	23	232.1
Stephen Clulow	NSH	72	31	226.2
André Georges	RCK	58	17	192.1
Juan Rodríguez	RCK	56	23	175
Jon Chandler	BRK	54	26	188.1
Abe Colbert, Jr.	LOU	54	22	219.1
Oliver Leyva	VAL	52	17	210.1
Randall Thomas	YS9	49	8	121.1
António Correa	ATC	49	21	246.1
Arturo Reyes	CCJ	49	17	220
Juan Jose Ornelas	SA	49	24	170.1
Arthur Dempster	RCK	48	34	221
Manuel Peña	MTL	48	17	206.1
Ramón Hernández	DM	48	26	199.2
Travis Arnold	TWC	47	25	221.2
José Morales	BRK	46	22	196
Tony Canales	CCJ	45	19	200.1
Kidanu Cherono	NSH	45	11	147.1

Interesting to note that YS9's Randall Thomas was on this list despite tossing by far the fewest innings of any of the rest.

[RonCo]

Fun Stat of the Moment...18 BBA pitchers balked more than one time in 2033:

Code: Select all

Name	TM	BK
José Trujillo	PHX	3
Nicholas Sutton	CCJ	3
Mario González	BRK	3
Ramón Hernández	DM	2
Reese Rayner	TWC	2
Chris Kelly	TWC	2
Marcos Villegas	MAD	2
Tim Oliver	YS9	2
Andre Jacobs	ATC	2
Harry Considine	PHX	2
Ken Walter	SEA	2
Bob Corrigan	PHX	2
Lambert Snabel	OMA	2
Júlio Velasco	LV	2
Luis Gracía	CAL	2
Alberto Sánchez	YS9	2
José Amaro	CAL	2
Colt Anderson	DM	2

[aaronweiner]

It would be interesting to know if hold runner limits the NUMBER of SB attempts rather than the success rate.

What else can we take a scan at...how about pitcher's ability to control the running game?

I took all pitchers, added their "Hold" ratings, and then tallied up the number of steals and CS against each "Hold" rating. In other words, while "Hold" may well limit the number of attempts, does it do anything to affect the CS% once a runner takes off?

The answer? ... Maybe a little

Here's the resulting table:

Code: Select all

Hold	SB	CS	SB%
1	57	32	0.640449438
2	265	162	0.620608899
3	211	99	0.680645161
4	826	379	0.685477178
5	999	480	0.675456389
6	995	516	0.658504302
7	995	560	0.639871383
8	1004	505	0.665341286
9	1019	543	0.652368758
10	571	328	0.635150167
11	445	242	0.647743814
			
Grand Total	7387	3846	

Ultimately, it seems to me that the catcher arm rating must play more in SB% defense than the pitcher's hold rating, but the data here isn't particularl powerful either way to my eyes. Doing a plot of the SB% by Hold, and adding a linear trendline gives you this:

[RonCo]

It would be interesting to know if hold runner limits the NUMBER of SB attempts rather than the success rate.

Some of my early testing says that Hold does limit the number of steals to some degree, but it's been a few versions since I've looked at it. That's much harder data to gather.

[RonCo]

Here's an interesting little chart. First time I've ever asked this question...does a pitcher's velocity affect the success of a SBA or not. As with the earlier quick and dirty look, I tallied up all SBA against pitchers of various velocities (the numbers are the low end of the velocity range). This chart would say that in 2033 BBA it did not...but, seriously, do not take this information as a fact. We're just having fun with numbers here. This data, though, say's the affect is almost reversed.

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Velocity	SB	CS	SB%
85	35	10	0.777777778
86	34	18	0.653846154
87	37	25	0.596774194
88	77	47	0.620967742
89	233	126	0.64902507
90	250	132	0.654450262
91	436	252	0.63372093
92	334	178	0.65234375
93	720	383	0.652765186
94	872	442	0.663622527
95	991	470	0.678302533
96	1052	493	0.680906149
97	760	404	0.652920962
98	471	243	0.659663866
99	1043	606	0.632504548
100	42	17	0.711864407
	7387	3846	

Here's a chart of the above...

[RonCo]

Another Flashpoint Look...who throws harder, lefties or righties? In the BBA it's close...

Code: Select all

Throws	Avg VEL
L	94.02836879
R	94.74331551
	94.54757282

Except...of course, that's just all the guys in the league. How about the guys who throw the most?

[RonCo]

When we take every inning pitched by lefties and righties, then weight them by their pitcher's velocities, we get this:

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Throws	Avg. Vel
L	94.17162174
R	95.05476243

So, on the whole the average RHP throws harder than the average LHP. Again, these are the bottom of the velocity ranges.

Here are the left handed pitchers in the league in 2033 who throw 100 MPH or more.

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Name	TM	VELO
Germão Real	PHX	100+ Mph
Luis Gracía	CAL	99-101 Mph
Jubal Troop	MTL	99-101 Mph
Conan Harris	BRK	99-101 Mph
Álex López	MTL	99-101 Mph
Claudio Escobedo	CCJ	99-101 Mph
Esteban Velásquez	SEA	99-101 Mph
León Ramírez	HAV	99-101 Mph
Bobby Lynch	EDM	99-101 Mph
Mario Contreras	HNT	99-101 Mph
Luis Ortega	NO	99-101 Mph
Bart Ender	MAD	99-101 Mph
Gabriel Alfonso	NO	99-101 Mph
Andy Cantrell	JAX	99-101 Mph
Ángel Calderón	OMA	99-101 Mph
Renzo Stefanelli	JAX	99-101 Mph
Ken Crawford	CCJ	99-101 Mph
Ferguson Gibson	HAV	99-101 Mph
Pavel Bure, Jr.	LV	99-101 Mph
Leonardo Montés	BRK	99-101 Mph
Juan Jose Eilzando	TWC	98-100 Mph
José Chávez	YS9	98-100 Mph
Ángelo Delgado	SA	98-100 Mph
Shawn Huber	LV	98-100 Mph
John Woods	OMA	98-100 Mph
Tai Xú	BRK	98-100 Mph

[udlb58]

Whiling away a little time...I'm going to do this "feature" on a few posts/replies...

Have you ever wondered who gave up the most Intentional Walks in a season? Yeah, kinda an odd thing to wonder, but I was wondering it anyway...which says something, I suppose. But, did you know that fifteen pitchers offered 10 or more freebies this year? Here they are:

Code: Select all

Name	TM	IBB
José Cavazos	HNT	19
Dan West	VAN	15
Fergus Penntcock	HNT	15
Luis Espinoza	VAN	13
José Pérez	DM	13
Mario Contreras	HNT	13
Fred Poe	VAN	13
Jaime Moreno	HNT	12
Ray Perkins	VAN	12
Sergio Ramírez	DM	12
Pablo Figueroa	VAN	11
Cam Palácios	MTL	11
Bob Sanderson	JAX	11
Bert Hugill	VAN	11
Flint Colbert	SA	10

Huntsville and Vancouver...man...nine of the fifteen are from these guys.

And Sanderson was due to his time with Huntsville, 10 of his 11 were with the Phantoms. We issued just 24 IBB on the season.

[udlb58]

Let's talk about that sizzling topic: inherited runners. I pulled the top 15 pitchers who entered the game with the most guys on base. It ranged from Anastasio Lopez (74) to Hermengildo Padez (46).

Code: Select all

Name	TM	IR	IRS	%
Anastasio López	MEX	74	11	0.129411765
Augusto Cruz	LBC	69	14	0.168674699
José Féliz	LBC	64	13	0.168831169
Marko Efremov	RCK	62	8	0.114285714
Raúl Sánchez	CCJ	60	13	0.178082192
Chris Dougherty	SA	59	24	0.289156627
Harold Lane	MAD	52	10	0.161290323
Alphonse Salvarani	TWC	52	14	0.212121212
Germão Real	PHX	51	11	0.177419355
Ray Boswell	CAL	51	9	0.15
Ricardo Valera	MEX	47	14	0.229508197
Alan Domínguez	BRK	47	9	0.160714286
Dillon Young	CCJ	47	11	0.189655172
Andy Cantrell	JAX	46	12	0.206896552
Hermenegildo Padez	YS9	46	7	0.132075472

Lopez was fantastic at 13% (as was Padez). Only Rockville's Marko Efremov at 11% was better. On the bottom of the scale was San Antonio's Chris Dougherty, who let 29% of his 59 inherited runners score. Again, not sure what it means, but I note that none of these guys are the big star closers (Jacksonville's Andy Cantrell led this group with 9 saves). These are kind of meat and potatoe kind of bullpen guys who eat up the ugly innings. Make of that what you will.

If there was a way to make a guy come in as a closer only when the remaining scheduled hitters were left handed, Andy Cantrell would end up with 20 saves a year.

[RonCo]

Let's talk about the headhunters in the league. Here are the pitchers across the league who finished with 15 or more HP.

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Name	TM	BF	HP
Jubal Troop	MTL	890	22
Stephen Clulow	NSH	963	18
Abe Colbert, Jr.	LOU	942	18
Jaime Mercado	CAL	787	18
Jon Reed	HAV	881	16
Anastasio Quintana	LOU	843	16
Adam Coughlan	EDM	802	16
Rodger van der Knaap	EDM	834	15
Noonien Soong	CLG	565	15

Note two Louisvillian's...though Colbert is a knuckler, so that's probably understandable.

[RonCo]

Moving to a different set of stats completely...

Here is the list of players in the league with more than 10 Baserunning Runs:

Name TM (BsR)
Mons Raider MAD (29)
Steve Dempsey MAD (13)

[RonCo]

Mexico City's Rhett Lawson is a 22 year old CF in his second season. He stole 8 bases. At the cost of getting thrown out 25 times. That's right: the 9/6 Speed/Steal guy was successful 8 of 33 times. He registered a league-worst -10.6 Base Running Runs.

Four players registers -10 Baserunning runs or worse this year:

Lawson = -10.6
Fernando Martinez HAW = -10.1
Jimmy Starks, Jr OMA = -10.1
Tu-fu Yong PHX = -10.0