Comments on: Pitch Location & Groundballs http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/pitch-location-and-groundballs/ Daily baseball statistical analysis and commentary Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:21:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: missionhockey21 http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/pitch-location-and-groundballs/#comment-4098 missionhockey21 Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:23:03 +0000 http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/pitch-location-and-groundballs/#comment-4098 I would tend to agree with your last statement. If inducing the groundball was as simple as targeting specific locations, then baseball would be a much simpler game to figure out as a pitcher. A pitcher with the kind of godly GB/FB that Webb shows also shows through his charts (and just any viewing of him actually pitching), that he can break the taboo often times with getting away with a pitch higher in the zone for various factors be it more knowledge of the hitter he's facing, pitch selection plus pitch location, velocity, etc to more often see a bouncer or a roller than the average pitcher. With these being two very good pitchers, I wonder if there is anymore of a visible impact for pitchers of a lower success rate. Such as Mark Mulder who is peripherals aren't near as good as Wood's for his last successful year in 2005 where he posted a GB/FB close to 2.80 IIRC. Obviously he isn't on the same level as Wood in his ability to induce the grounder (especially since that was quite a spike from his career average), but there is a difference of talent there and I wonder if it would be more apparent for him. Either way, interesting article David. I would tend to agree with your last statement. If inducing the groundball was as simple as targeting specific locations, then baseball would be a much simpler game to figure out as a pitcher. A pitcher with the kind of godly GB/FB that Webb shows also shows through his charts (and just any viewing of him actually pitching), that he can break the taboo often times with getting away with a pitch higher in the zone for various factors be it more knowledge of the hitter he’s facing, pitch selection plus pitch location, velocity, etc to more often see a bouncer or a roller than the average pitcher.

With these being two very good pitchers, I wonder if there is anymore of a visible impact for pitchers of a lower success rate. Such as Mark Mulder who is peripherals aren’t near as good as Wood’s for his last successful year in 2005 where he posted a GB/FB close to 2.80 IIRC. Obviously he isn’t on the same level as Wood in his ability to induce the grounder (especially since that was quite a spike from his career average), but there is a difference of talent there and I wonder if it would be more apparent for him.

Either way, interesting article David.

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