Simple Facts

by jscape2000 on Apr 10, 2008 11:44 AM EDT in New York Yankees Analysis

The Yankees have drawn 21 walks on the young season- that's tied for third from the bottom.

When they have hit the ball there has been little force in the swing- only the Tigers, Dodgers, and Giants have lower SLG percentages so far.

Unsurprisingly, this has led to the third lowest runs scored in the majors.

The Yanks have seen 1190 pitches in 314 plate appearances, or 3.79 pitches per appearance. While that number is low for the Yankees (19th in MLB, 7th in the AL), it means that the Yanks' approach isn't too far off. Last year they averaged 3.89 P/PA and led the majors in pitches seen.

Looking over the 9 starters the Yanks have faced, something jumps out at me: Bannister 60% of his pitches were strikes, Burnett 59%, Greinke 68%, Halladay 64%, Hammel 63%, Jackson 61%, McGowan 59%, Shields 68%, Sonnanstine 71%.

The Yanks have faced a bunch of strike throwers, and haven't had much luck putting the ball in play. Of the regulars, only Abreu and Arod have BABIP over .300. Neither of those trends figures to last.

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Comments

Maybe

they are swinging at too many balls.

Do those numbers count a swing and a miss/foul ball as a strike regardless of where the pitch was?

"Well, that kind of puts a damper on even a Yankees win."
-- Phil Rizzuto after hearing about the Pope's death

by matthaggs on Apr 10, 2008 2:11 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah

if it was recorded a strike, it's a strike. It would take me a long time to go through the Gameday to see where each foul or swinging strike came across the plate. If somebody else wants to tackle that for a game or two I'll frontpage it.

I think the issue is simply squaring up the ball. The team is struggling all at once- we've seen it before, and they'll pull out of it.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Apr 10, 2008 2:28 PM EDT up reply actions