Comments on: Back to His Old Habits?

By: Bhaakon

Bhaakon — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:22:26 +0000

There’s another factor, which may relate to Zito’s new and improved IFF%. Purely subjectively, it’s my opinion that Molina struggles to catch high fastballs, and shys away from calling them. IIRC, this is a pitch which Zito had used often in Oakland.

Again, something that should be revealed by the pitch f/x data.

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:31:45 +0000

The pitchers with sinkers induce grounballs…
Zito’s best pitch is his circle change, which if I recall correctly, he thows quite often. Well if the hitter sits on it and gets a fastball, wouldn’t by the law of physics he pop it up? Would this explain the high flyball rates?

By: kris

kris — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:40:13 +0000

Okay, first off – SSCA is lame. We’re all intelligent people who know that 6 games is 6 games, nothing more. It really shouldn’t have to be pointed out until mid-season when some stats are around the correct number of events, and others aren’t. I think it’s pretty fair to assume that 99.9% of fangraph readers know enough math to understand when a sample size is statistically significant.

Secondly, the Zito comment is awesome. It’s just so nonsensical that I buy it. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Zito shakes off catchers-not-named-molina more often and throws whatever he damn well pleases.

I’m sure it would be a long and tedious job, but checking zito’s shake-off rate with different catchers would definitely intrigue me.

By: Bhaakon

Bhaakon — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:58:19 +0000

SSCA (To take Steve Balboni’s suggestion), there’s speculation in the Bay Area that Zito’s improvement has something to do with who is catching him. Dating back to late last season, Zito seemed to throw significantly better when Bengie Molina was not behind the plate. From August 18th (the first time Sandoval caught Zito), Barry put up 29 IP, 22 R, 22/13 K/BB and 4 HR when Molina caught, and 52 IP, 15 R, 34/17 K/BB and 4 HR when anyone else played backstop.

I realize that the evidence for “game calling” is tenuous at best, but Zito’s extremely unorthodox style suggests the possibility of a connection. It could be that Zito, and perhaps other pitcher’s with unusual stuff, demand an equally unusual approach from their catchers. Also interesting, Pablo Sandoval, who caught most of the games in the second group, has a fairly poor defensive reputation (except throwing out base stealers, which he’s excelled at).

By: Bhaakon

Bhaakon — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:35:39 +0000

But popups are home runs in a well.

By: Steve Balboni

Steve Balboni — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:52:45 +0000

You can just preface with “SSCA” (Sample Size Caveat Aside).

By: kris

kris — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:54:15 +0000

I think it’s the Horizontal movement that’s doing it — After two years of being below average throwing that big overhand curve, he’s now getting 5.6 inches of horz. movement on it.

I haven’t seen him pitch in a long damn time, but it’d be interesting to see his arm angle and how he’s actually throwing the curve now.

I took a quick peak at the release point data, and he’s still coming waaay over the top. Guess he’s just getting more “hows your mother” on it.

By: MPC

MPC — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:38:19 +0000

Pitch anywhere as good? Come on. “Pitch anywhere as WELL…”

By: brian

brian — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:12:34 +0000

what about sliders? his curveball % is his lowest ever, and slider % is his highest ever.

it’s also interesting that his groundball rate is his highest ever…

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:37:43 +0000

Zito’s GB rate is also at 45% this year, which is a career high. He is only allowing 36.4% FBs, but if half of them are of the infield variety, that means he is allowing only ~18% outfield FBs. Playing in that huge ballpark, it’s no surprise that he’s only allowed 2 homers.