Cabin Twelve

I am currently putting together a database of baseball stats in order to better understand the game fill my brain with absurd baseball trivia. And while I get things going, I’ve been occasionally asking random questions to get myself more comfortable navigating the tons of data available these days. I decided to post the answers to some of these questions and compile them in what I have dubbed, Random Bits of Useless Knowledge.

Here’s another thought that could be interesting, if I expand on it and present it in a more useful fashion. The rate at which the Twins “power” guys (I use that term loosely) hit Fly Balls, Ground Balls, Line Drives and Pop Ups. These are career numbers.

(The first column is the % of batted balls of each type, the second column in the % of total bases (from balls put in play – not walks) the player advanced with each type of hit)

Joe Crede pops up a lot. He also got a large % of his total bases on fly balls, so, you know.

Micheal Cuddyer does pretty well when he gets the ball in the air. So does Jason Kubel. Its too bad you can’t just say “hey, stop hitting the ball on the ground.”

Joe Mauer is really a ground ball guy. And he pops out 2.43% of the time. That’s close to never.

Justin Morneau is our fly ball king. No surprise there.

Delmon Young would probably benefit from getting the ball elevated more than Cuddyer and Kubel.

I am currently putting together a database of baseball stats in order to better understand the game fill my brain with absurd baseball trivia. And while I get things going, I’ve been occasionally asking random questions to get myself more comfortable navigating the tons of data available these days. I decided to post the answers to some of these questions and compile them in what I have dubbed, Random Bits of Useless Knowledge.

First up on the list? Why not find out how often the Twins swung at the first pitch of an at-bat in 2008? The question, for me, started with Jason Kubel. I can’t recall exactly when it was, but I seem to remember Kubel swinging at first pitches in a few later inning AB’s in a few games in short succession and hitting long fly balls that just missed going deep. So, did Jason Kubel swing at more first pitches than most Twins batters? That was a sort perception of events in my head. Well, I decided to pull the numbers for the Twins in 2008 and see if the perception was reality. And of course it wasn’t. Here are the numbers for Twins with >300 plate appearances:

Absolutely no surprise at the top. It took about 2 games into the 2008 season to devine that Young and Gomez swing, swing early and swing often. The surprise to me was the Morneau was 3rd on the team and that Kubel was that low on the list. I do happen to think that Kubel is a patient hitter and can take pitches (though I’m not sure he’s content to take too many with 3 balls), but I had developed the impression that Morneau was becoming a more patient hitter over time. Perhaps not. Perhaps he’s just realized that sometimes he’s just going to get pitched around, so he’ll talk his walks when he has too.

There are some interesting results of AB’s for some of these guys when they take the 1st pitch vs. swing as well, but more on that later. I’m not sure this topic, in general, is interesting enough to blather on any longer about.

One memo to AL pitchers though. Throw a first pitch strike to Mauer! He’s not going to swing at it!