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June 26, 2012 Painting the BlackWhy Does Everybody Go Inside On Matt Holliday?Entertain a hypothetical situation for a moment. Let’s say a gang of aliens invades and threatens to destroy the planet unless someone can make them feel five emotions by only talking about Matt Holliday, in which case they will return home. What would you tell them? You could start simple and aim to impress them by reciting Holliday’s numbers. Holliday ranks ninth in career batting average among active players, as well as 15th in on-base percentage and 14th in slugging percentage. Then freeze them in empathy for San Diego by explaining the moment when an umpire incorrectly called Holliday safe at home. Warm them with laughter by recreating Holliday’s fumble in the postseason, and frighten them with Holliday’s pro-wrester-like musculature. There is no shortage of choices for the final emotion, but here’s a tidbit that would shock their helmets off: No batter sees more inside fastballs than Holliday. |
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Seems to me like there's a bit of a logic gap going on here. The first chart covers what percentage of fastballs are inside, but nowhere do we see an exploration of what percentage of total pitches are fastballs, much less inside ones.
That would be a nice piece of additional data for the article.
Enjoyed the read though R.J.
Per the MLBAM classifications, Holliday is seeing 67.4 percent fastballs (that's four- and two-seamers, as well as cutters and sinkers, no splitters). That percentage is the 16th highest in the league, behind these fellows:
Name FB%
Jamey Carroll 74.1
Jemile Weeks 71.9
Derek Jeter 71.4
Dee Gordon 71
Nick Markakis 70.6
Mike Trout 70
Orlando Hudson 69.9
Elvis Andrus 69.3
Denard Span 69
A.J. Ellis 68.9
Gregor Blanco 68.5
J.J. Hardy 68.2
Darwin Barney 68.2
Placido Polanco 67.7
Ichiro Suzuki 67.5
Sorry about that, I should've included it.
And to tie it all together a bit more: If 67.4 percent of Holliday's pitches seen are fastballs, and 68 percent of them are inside, then that means we're talking about 46 percent of his total pitches. That's not an insignificant amount.
R.J. Is there a way to check if this has been going on for multiple seasons? Is pitching Holiday inside something that has been going on for a while or is it a new trend for him this season.
There is, although I'd have to get one of the PITCHf/x gurus to pull the rates.
Thanks for including