Comments on: More Javy Frustration

By: Clifton

Clifton — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:54:43 +0000

i found a german local that knew about the fleshlight … worldwide!

By: peterd17

peterd17 — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:08:05 +0000

Vazquez is awesome! I believe he’s one of the most underrated pitchers in the MLB. However, he’s also one of the most unluckiest pitchers as most of you probably already know. I don’t understand how a guy that eats up innings and strikes guys out like Vazquez keeps getting traded. Every team can use a pitcher like Vazquez. Sometimes I think he challenges hitters too much. Oh yea Ozzie Guillen is a complete clown by calling him out. Ozzie’s just mad because he wasn’t half as good as Vazquez as a player! I also read somewhere that Vazquez was hiding an arm injury in the 2nd half of the 2004 season when he was with the Yankees. Imagine if this didn’t happen he could possibly still be with the Yanks picking up a bunch of wins and some more All Star appearances! But then again if the queen had balls she would be the king. Overall, I concluded that Vazquez is really unlucky and played for some bad teams with bad defenses and he also played in some great hitters parks.

By: Troy Patterson

Troy Patterson — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:29:35 +0000

Using the awesome new Pitch F/x single game data that isn’t true as his release point does not vary significantly by pitch type.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:18:07 +0000

Having mlb.com package for the first time, I’ve seen a few White Sox games. In one of them, I think it was Harrelson(no paragon of objectivity for sure) started talking about not missing Javi. He said something I’d never heard, which was that he uses different release points for different pitches and hence gives up HR’s when he misses. I’m not going to do the video work, but it caught my ear as a scout notation. Might pay to look.

By: Ezra

Ezra — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:43:35 +0000

This comment board reminds me of a similar fangraphs analysis last week when Dave Bush attempted a no-hitter. Despite vastly different styles, these two pitchers have similar results: overly prone to the long ball. I have had Vazquez in my keeper league since he was an Expo and have won several championships with him; he even was World Series MVP for me one year! This year, I traded him for a draft pick (which became Clay Buchholz) and protected Scherzer instead. Results still pending…

By: Troy Patterson

Troy Patterson — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:45:09 +0000

Wow I was almost right on with the actual split of 0.9 between bases empty and RISP. He wasn’t double that in 2008 though as his split in 2008 was 1.51.

I think the point still stands though that he is worse in the stretch and that causes his numbers to always underperform numbers that are based on league average like FIP.

By: Scappy

Scappy — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:32:26 +0000

I think you really should only be focusing on JV’s k/bb rate when a runners on 1st, 1st & 2nd, and 1st & 3rd.

With a runner on and 1st base open a pitcher is more likely to nibble the strike zone and not give the batter anything to hit because the penalty of the walk is not as great. But with the bases loaded he will be pitching from the wind up again. So using RISP may not be best way to look at this.

I’d love to look into this, but have no idea where to pull this sort of information from. It would be nice to have stretch and wind-up splits for every pitcher. Could pull out velocity and movement differences of pitches. See which pitchers are more confident in their pitches and don’t rely too heavily on a fastball when they are in a pinch.

Very interesting stuff.

By: twinsfan

twinsfan — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:23:35 +0000

MLB K/BB in 2009 (AL and NL nearly identical)
2.13 – bases empty
1.52 – men on
1.31 – RISP

MLB K/BB in 2008
2.35 – bases empty
1.69 – men on
1.45 – RISP

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:22:43 +0000

I know, I was specifically to having the wheels fall of a no-no that rapidly.

By: Troy Patterson

Troy Patterson — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:58:19 +0000

You’re right Eric and I did not have that data for the league averages. I have been looking for it and if you have access to that I would be greatful. My guess by looking around is the average is between your two examples at about a 1.00 K/BB drop. This would make him twice the league average, but again this is only a guess.

I would guess most of the pitchers who are worse than the league average likely have a lower LOB%.