What does everyone make of this? Any tips on refining the stat? -- Kurt
I decided to pick-up on a fan post I had worked on from last September called: "How well do our hitters fair against top-tier pitchers in the league?" (link here)
Ever since my post, I have been trying to find some answers and to no avail. I firmly believe that there is value in identifying how well hitters do against the best pitching. So I decided to whip something together myself.
After re-learning Microsoft Excel and spending WAY TOO MUCH time culling numbers from baseball-reference.com, I have finally reached some conclusions. If you want to check my homework, here is the full spreadsheet on google documents updated as of this morning (Sept. 3).
I'll post some of my thoughts on these numbers in comments. But I should probably do some "real work" first this morning.
Please let me know what you guys think :) -- Daniel
Hit the jump to check out the numbers in a semi-attractively laid-out way (not so good on the whole formatting shindig).
| Stats are current as of September 3, 2012 |
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PA |
AB |
BA |
OBP |
SLG |
OPS |
ISO |
| AJax |
vs the best starters |
106 |
96 |
0.208 |
0.274 |
0.365 |
0.657 |
0.156 |
|
year overall |
503 |
441 |
0.306 |
0.387 |
0.492 |
0.879 |
0.186 |
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% PA vs the best |
21% |
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| Boesch |
vs the best starters |
93 |
90 |
0.278 |
0.301 |
0.444 |
0.737 |
0.167 |
|
year overall |
455 |
426 |
0.246 |
0.290 |
0.387 |
0.677 |
0.141 |
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% PA vs the best |
20% |
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| Cabby |
vs the best starters |
117 |
103 |
0.349 |
0.424 |
0.592 |
0.991 |
0.243 |
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year overall |
577 |
514 |
0.331 |
0.397 |
0.589 |
0.986 |
0.258 |
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% PA vs the best |
20% |
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| Prince |
vs the best starters |
110 |
99 |
0.232 |
0.309 |
0.414 |
0.728 |
0.182 |
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year overall |
572 |
480 |
0.313 |
0.411 |
0.517 |
0.928 |
0.204 |
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% PA vs the best |
19% |
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| Delmon |
vs the best starters |
88 |
83 |
0.301 |
0.341 |
0.494 |
0.838 |
0.193 |
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year overall |
467 |
468 |
0.276 |
0.308 |
0.438 |
0.746 |
0.162 |
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% PA vs the best |
19% |
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| Peralta |
vs the best starters |
89 |
81 |
0.216 |
0.287 |
0.352 |
0.625 |
0.136 |
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year overall |
477 |
433 |
0.254 |
0.317 |
0.413 |
0.731 |
0.159 |
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% PA vs the best |
19% |
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| Avila |
vs the best starters |
53 |
48 |
0.188 |
0.264 |
0.437 |
0.681 |
0.250 |
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year overall |
365 |
311 |
0.244 |
0.349 |
0.379 |
0.728 |
0.135 |
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% PA vs the best |
15% |
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| Dirks |
vs the best starters |
34 |
31 |
0.322 |
0.382 |
0.484 |
0.861 |
0.161 |
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year overall |
243 |
219 |
0.333 |
0.393 |
0.502 |
0.895 |
0.169 |
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% PA vs the best |
14% |
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| Berry |
vs the best starters |
30 |
26 |
0.231 |
0.311 |
0.385 |
0.656 |
0.154 |
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year overall |
274 |
239 |
0.268 |
0.346 |
0.368 |
0.714 |
0.100 |
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% PA vs the best |
11% |
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| Santiago |
vs the best starters |
49 |
44 |
0.159 |
0.235 |
0.250 |
0.495 |
0.091 |
|
year overall |
248 |
218 |
0.211 |
0.291 |
0.280 |
0.571 |
0.069 |
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% PA vs the best |
20% |
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| Raburn |
vs the best starters |
42 |
38 |
0.132 |
0.190 |
0.263 |
0.459 |
0.131 |
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year overall |
214 |
198 |
0.172 |
0.225 |
0.258 |
0.483 |
0.086 |
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% PA vs the best |
20% |
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****************
These are the pitchers that I chose to rep the "top-tier" pitchers. As you can see, they are mostly from American League playoff contending teams; however, I added A.J. Burnett (because he has been hella good for the Pirates this year... and Tigers hitters faced him twice), along with King Felix, Vargas and Diamond (who have all put up super solid numbers).
How did I choose? Well.. I wanted enough pitchers to create a decent-sized sample and I figured sub 4.00 ERA would be a fair cut-off, but then thought that Darvish and Hughes probably have pitched well enough to be included in the group as well... and as they pitch for the two best teams in the AL, why not lump 'em in?
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W |
L |
ERA |
WHIP |
BAA |
IP |
K |
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| TEX |
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| Harrison |
15 |
8 |
3.30 |
1.26 |
0.256 |
174.1 |
106 |
| Darvish |
14 |
9 |
4.29 |
1.37 |
0.229 |
161.2 |
188 |
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| NYY |
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| Kuroda |
12 |
10 |
3.04 |
1.10 |
0.238 |
183.1 |
135 |
| Sabathia |
13 |
4 |
3.42 |
1.20 |
0.246 |
163 |
161 |
| Hughes |
13 |
12 |
4.18 |
1.27 |
0.261 |
161.2 |
136 |
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| OAK |
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| Parker |
9 |
7 |
3.72 |
1.32 |
0.250 |
140.1 |
107 |
| Milone |
11 |
10 |
3.94 |
1.23 |
0.267 |
162.1 |
118 |
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| TAMPA |
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| Price |
17 |
5 |
2.54 |
1.12 |
0.225 |
180.2 |
175 |
| Hellickson |
8 |
10 |
3.41 |
1.27 |
0.246 |
145.1 |
93 |
| Moore |
10 |
8 |
3.58 |
1.33 |
0.238 |
156 |
152 |
| Shields |
13 |
8 |
3.88 |
1.25 |
0.252 |
190 |
181 |
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| BAL |
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| Chen |
12 |
8 |
3.79 |
1.23 |
0.241 |
163.2 |
134 |
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| CWS |
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| Sale |
15 |
6 |
2.93 |
1.08 |
0.223 |
163 |
162 |
| Peavy |
9 |
10 |
3.28 |
1.12 |
0.238 |
181 |
159 |
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| LAA |
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| J. Weaver |
16 |
4 |
2.86 |
1.03 |
0.216 |
160.1 |
121 |
| C.J. Wilson |
11 |
9 |
3.85 |
1.33 |
0.240 |
175.1 |
148 |
| * Greinke |
12 |
5 |
3.82 |
1.26 |
0.258 |
169.2 |
162 |
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| SEA |
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| F. Hernandez |
13 |
6 |
2.51 |
1.04 |
0.222 |
204 |
191 |
| Vargas |
14 |
9 |
3.80 |
1.17 |
0.245 |
191.2 |
121 |
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| MIN |
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| Diamond |
10 |
6 |
3.21 |
1.21 |
0.274 |
137.1 |
73 |
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| PIT |
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| * A.J. Burnett |
15 |
5 |
3.63 |
1.24 |
0.242 |
163.2 |
145 |
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| DET |
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| Verlander |
13 |
7 |
2.73 |
1.03 |
0.212 |
204.1 |
209 |
| Scherzer |
15 |
6 |
3.93 |
1.32 |
0.256 |
162.2 |
204 |
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| AVERAGE: |
13 |
7 |
3.45 |
1.21 |
0.242 |
168 |
148 |
|
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff.
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