We can wax poetic about baseball fairly easily some have pretty much designed a career from it. The greenne s of the park, Wes Welker Jersey the amount of games, and its tight ties to history are all bullet points within the why baseball is the greatest sport argument. Theres also the pace of the game. Baseball doesnt have a clock! Sometimes it can go on forever! Although this can get overplayed at sometimes, it definitely is a draw. We perhaps arent interested in watching six-hour games every single day, however the inherent pace of the sport brings with it another facet drama.
Every sport has dramatic moments. There will always be points inside a game where ones palms could po sibly get sweaty and knees bounce in anticipation. College basketball specifically the NCAA tournament may hold a monopoly about this, at least as far as intensity goes. But baseball has the most high-drama moments, simply due to the fact that there are a lot of games. But thats the exact reason we dont Tevrin Brandon Jersey think of baseball a minimum of regular season baseball as high-drama. There are plenty of games. No matter what happens, there's a game tomorrow. The effect of 1 at-bat with an entire teams months are far le s compared to aftereffect of one play on a football teams season. Thats only the numbers. But baseball has got the most, certainly. And also the king of dramatic situation the truly amazing bringer of the bouncing knee may be the full count.
In almost every conceivable situation, a 3-2 count benefits the hitter. If a pitcher is walk-averse (which they usually ought to be), a full count forces these to throw a help out or very near the stike zone. Hittable pitches are hit easier than non-hittable pitches hence the very well-labeled term. In 2013, the league had an .804 OPS in at-bats that reached a full count, versus a .714 OPS overall. Reaching a full count also means that the pitcher needed to throw more pitches, which is something the opposing team likes. This really is all coming back to the original point that 3-2 counts help the hitter, and if a hitter can work a complete count, that's beneficial to his team. As well as in this, albeit narrow, sense, Paul Goldschmidt was very useful for 2013.
Batter3-2 Mark Sanchez Jersey pitchesJoey Votto196Paul Goldschmidt195Shin-Soo Choo192Mike Trout181Mike Napoli177Jay Bruce173Josh Donaldson167Justin Upton161Carlos Santana160Jason Kipnis159Brett Gardner159Matt Carpenter154Adam Dunn152
The above is a list of all of the hitters that saw 150 or even more full-count pitches in 2013. Goldschmidt comes in second, with 195. The man at the top should come as no surprise. Joey Votto is famous (or infamous, depending on the source) for his patience. It seems sensible that that will become many 3-2 pitches. But this just tells area of the story. While getting to a full count is good for a hitter, additionally, it matters what he does with it.
Batter3-2 pitchesHRAVGOBPSLGBB%K%wOBAPaul Goldschmidt19550.33330.55930.58970.3390.13560.493Josh Donaldson16710.34290.58560.48570.36940.16220.477Shin-Soo Choo19210.27590.57720.44830.38930.22150.470Mike Aqib Talib Jersey Trout18110.250.5420.350.38930.28240.425Carlos Santana16010.27630.52140.38160.34190.20510.418Mike Napoli17730.20930.48090.38370.33590.3130.405Jason Kipnis15920.19350.50.33870.38460.250.402Joey Votto19610.1860.520.27910.41330.21330.398Brett Gardner1590.23290.47660.34250.31780.2430.389Matt Carpenter15420.22780.46550.35440.31030.13790.386Jay Bruce17330.21250.40910.41250.24550.33640.370Justin Upton16140.17860.44350.32140.32260.33060.369Adam Dunn15240.12820.42860.30770.34450.42020.360
When you are looking at production on full counts, Goldschmidt and Shin-Soo Choo lead those. Votto cannot appear to hit 3-2 pitches for beans. He does have an insane walk rate, but his insufficient production with the bat drives him right down to the middle of the overall-production list. Probably the most patient hitters within the league is visible above , which actually makes it kind of boring. Its expected, almost. But theres something I havent shown you yet.
Goldy not just works full counts, he stays entirely counts, fouling off nearly 40% of the 3-2 pitches he sees. They are what television and radio announcers describe Zaire Anderson Jersey as good at-bats. I would probably also call them that, however i dont carry the clout of a person on TV. Dave Cameron continues to be on TV, and that he might call them good at-bats, but Im too afraid to inquire about him and dont wish to remind him that he still lets me write here.
Where were we? Oh yeah. How? How is Paul Goldschmidt in a position to foul off a lot of pitches? It seems like where those pitches are thrown offers quite a bit related to it.
For some reason, pitchers are just not that interested in pitching around Paul Goldschmidt. Nearly every full-count pitch he sees is in or near the strike zone. This confuses me. Certainly some C.J. Anderson Jersey of it has related to the pitcher hes facing, or maybe the game situation, however it appears like a large amount of pitchers were unconcerned with throwing a 3-2 meatball to 1 of the greatest hitters within the league.
These are the 3-2 pitches thrown to Joey Votto. He saw many more pitches out of the strike zone, and pitchers also concentrated on pitching him away or tight inside. Very few meatballs here. Votto certainly (and deservingly) includes a reputation like a formidable hitter. But Votto and Goldschmidt were tied this year in wRC+. Goldschmidt slugged better and had a greater wOBA. This was a down year for Votto, without doubt, but his reputation carried with him. Its going for a while for Goldschmidts reputation to trap up, it seems
Are you among the smarter pitchers that thinks its smart to not throw Goldschmidt such hittable pitches in full counts? Well tough crap! Because hes just going to foul those off, too. Dominique Jones Jersey Hes an eel waiting in the weeds for that juicy prey to come along. He has no real interest in these scraps.
Goldschmidts capability to foul off so many pitches allows him to extend the at-bat and wait for a more hittable pitch. This plays a minimum of some part in his impre sive full-count stats. And while those stats carry a small sample size tag, full-count at-bats made up 16% of his total this year, which isnt insignificant. He hasnt been in the league long enough for us to create a fair a sumption as to whether it is really an actual skill or otherwise, but his combination of patience and foul-off-ability (totally not really a real term) certainly led to a season that saw him rank sixth in wRC+ and ninth in WAR. It also allowed me to use a Bee Gees reference within the title, that has to count for something.
(PitchFX charts via Texas Leaguers) |