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March 06, 2008
Having Command & Pitching To Contact Not So Good?
Reading Tyler Kepner's feature on the command/control of Ian Kennedy (with his pitches) got me wondering as to which pitchers, in recent Yankees history, were the best in terms of having control and pitching to contact. So, I turned to the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia and set the controls for:
NEW YORK YANKEES, CAREER, 1973-2007 where
INNINGS PITCHED >=100
STRIKEOUTS/9 IP < -1 vs. the league average
WALKS/9 IP >= 1 vs. the league average
and, this is what I got:
WALKS/9 IP DIFF PLAYER LEAGUE IP RSAA SO/9 IP BB/9 IP 1 Jon Lieber 2.43 0.92 3.34 176.2 2 -1.25 2.43 2 Steve Howe 1.64 1.98 3.62 227 20 -1.28 1.64 3 Ramiro Mendoza 1.52 1.98 3.50 699.2 32 -1.01 1.52 4 Carl Pavano 1.43 1.62 3.05 111.1 -3 -1.36 1.43 5 Paul Quantrill 1.35 1.91 3.26 127.1 -11 -2.98 1.35 6 Bob Tewksbury 1.34 2.09 3.43 163.2 5 -2.50 1.34 7 Tommy John 1.15 2.13 3.28 1367 59 -1.85 1.15 8 Larry Gura 1.09 2.30 3.39 207.1 9 -1.38 1.09 9 Fritz Peterson 1.03 2.39 3.43 191.2 -4 -2.08 1.03
Outside of Ramiro Mendoza and Tommy John, the Yankees have not really had a "high command/contact" pitcher do well for them, lately, have they? And, with these two, having killer sinkers helped them.
What about Worm Killer Wang? Simple, his "WALKS/9 IP vs. the league average" (to date) is 0.79 - and that's why he missed being on this list.
Update, 3/6/08, 4:08 pm ET: Reader "Carla" asked:
"How does the list change if you use K/9 just less than league average instead of a whole unit fewer than the league average?"
Here it is:
NEW YORK YANKEES, CAREER, 1973-2007 where
INNINGS PITCHED >=100
STRIKEOUTS/9 IP < 0 vs. the league average
WALKS/9 IP >= 1 vs. the league average
WALKS/9 IP DIFF PLAYER LEAGUE IP RSAA SO/9 IP BB/9 IP 1 Jon Lieber 2.43 0.92 3.34 176.2 2 -1.25 2.43 2 David Wells 1.87 1.47 3.34 851.2 45 -.41 1.87 3 Steve Howe 1.64 1.98 3.62 227 20 -1.28 1.64 4 Ramiro Mendoza 1.52 1.98 3.50 699.2 32 -1.01 1.52 5 Carl Pavano 1.43 1.62 3.05 111.1 -3 -1.36 1.43 6 Paul Quantrill 1.35 1.91 3.26 127.1 -11 -2.98 1.35 7 Bob Tewksbury 1.34 2.09 3.43 163.2 5 -2.50 1.34 8 Jimmy Key 1.33 2.37 3.70 604.1 52 -.04 1.33 9 Scott Sanderson 1.33 2.09 3.41 401.1 -9 -.32 1.33 10 Tommy John 1.15 2.13 3.28 1367 59 -1.85 1.15
This gets David Wells, Jimmy Key and Scott Sanderson into the top ten cut - with Wells and Key pitching effectively.
Posted by WW Staff at March 6, 2008 12:50 PM
Comments
I'd say Lieber's time with the Yanks was decent enough - no?
Posted by: Pete ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 6, 2008 03:39 PM
I wonder about that criterion of K/9 at least one fewer than the league average. After all, the league average includes all of the crummy pitchers as well as all the good ones.
I would think that a good control pitcher would not necessarily have *that* *many* fewer strikeouts than the league average; he'd have fewer strikeouts than good power pitchers, certainly, but not necessarily that much fewer than all pitchers, good and crummy alike, on average. A good control pitcher, after all, is likely to be pitching ahead in the count most of the time.
I'm not sure whether my reasoning holds water or not but to see whether it does, how does the list change if you use K/9 just less than league average instead of a whole unit fewer than the league average? Where do really good control pitchers actually come out in k/9 versus the league average?
Posted by: carla at March 6, 2008 03:45 PM
Pete - just 2 RSAA for J.L. here - that's OK, but, not highly effective.
Posted by: WW Staff at March 6, 2008 04:15 PM