Comments on: Adventures in Extreme Plate Discipline

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:58:16 +0000

Joe, great question. He has about twice as many PAs as a lefty and sees more pitches as a lefty so even more than twice as many pitches seen as a lefty than a righty. That made it harder to make as finely resolved swing contours after breaking the data up also by number of strikes. I should probably have done generally though a swing contour as lefty vs as righty not broken up by number of strikes. It does look like he walks much less as a righty (walk rate is halved). He does swing more as a righty 33% of the time versus 30% of the time as a lefty.

By: D

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:57:16 +0000

As a Mets fan, I appreciate the 2009 version of Castillo, even if he did drop a routine pop-up. And I wish Manuel would bat him 2nd more often.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:31:32 +0000

What about Castillo as a right-hander? Is it any different? He has 25 career HR as a RH and only 2 as a LH. .427 SLG RH vs .328 LH and .005 lower OBP RH with a .009 higher AVG. Is there a change in his approach?

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:55:17 +0000

Just to be clear this analysis is based on the pitchf/x data, which gives, among other things the location of the pitch in the zone. The hitf/x data gives information about the ball after it is hit.

They do not have the pitchf/x system, or hitf/x for that matter, set up in minor league parks. At the pitchf/x summit I thought I heard that some teams have or are planning on installing the system in their minor league parks. If those teams have done so already the data are not publicly available.

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:51:08 +0000

Brian, that is a very good way of thinking about it. I wish I had phrased it that way in the article.

Do you know if it is generally true that there is an inverse relationship between swing rate and contact rate?

By: iyh

iyh — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:08:00 +0000

Hey Dave,

Is there Hit F/X data for minor league games? If so, I’d like to know why, or at least get a sense for why, Chris Davis isn’t striking out as much in Triple-A. Obviously, it’s partially (if not mostly) a function of the competition, but I suspect there’s also been a slight change in approach/selectivity on Davis’ part.

IYH

By: Brian Cartwright

Brian Cartwright — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:29:50 +0000

Guys who swing and miss a lot can’t afford to take a strike, they are precious commodities not to be wasted. Castillo, on the other hand, can take two strikes (and however many balls) without worrying about striking out, because of his excellent contact skills.

By: snowball2

snowball2 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:54:19 +0000

I am interested in Max’s question as well. Could you do the same type of analysis you did in your Baseball Analysts post ‘Does the Umpire Know the Count?’ (http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/fx_visualizatio_1/), except only do it for Luis’s at bats.

Great post Dave!

By: Max

Max — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:23:20 +0000

On a serious note. Is it possible to do a quick study to check if Luis’ reputation as a patient hitter gets umpires to call borderline pitches in his favor more often than the average hitter?

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:22:21 +0000

Great work here Dave. I love these contour zones and only wish I could make one myself. I’ve been really interested in the plate discipline data offered here at FanGraphs for analysis of a player’s plate approach, and I’ve done some rudimentary plate approach analysis with some players of interest. Good stuff, keep it up.