Finding the Zone

Between my interest in Fools, OOZ, some feedback and the release point normalization stuff, I wanted to see how strike zones vary within PITCHf/x, in a variety of ways.

First, sz_top and sz_bot, which are set by the PITCHf/x operators.

		sz_top				sz_bot
Batter	Pitches	Avg	Max	Min	Stddv	Avg	Max	Min	Stddv
Lee, Derrek	1063	3.807	4.940	3.216	0.262	1.735	2.400	1.354	0.138
DeRosa, Mark	872	3.598	4.464	3.107	0.188	1.575	2.038	1.321	0.139
Theriot, Ryan	834	3.306	4.422	2.855	0.190	1.439	2.290	1.060	0.119
Jones, Jacque	732	3.606	4.384	3.250	0.194	1.688	2.200	1.330	0.081
Soriano, Alfonso	716	3.260	4.714	2.639	0.213	1.478	2.674	1.043	0.140
Ramirez, Aramis	651	3.609	4.534	3.291	0.204	1.643	2.276	1.285	0.092
Fontenot, Mike	594	3.181	4.112	2.320	0.181	1.444	1.820	1.000	0.126
Kendall, Jason	541	3.503	4.660	3.201	0.194	1.637	2.218	1.419	0.134
Floyd, Cliff	418	3.794	4.458	3.168	0.216	1.775	2.125	1.179	0.124
Murton, Matt	418	3.140	3.618	2.825	0.159	1.464	1.820	1.279	0.089
Pagan, Angel	293	3.404	4.044	3.120	0.187	1.517	2.040	1.227	0.132
Pie, Felix	271	3.428	4.170	3.081	0.255	1.579	1.870	1.059	0.172

OK, that's not a good sign - there are some out of whack values (this is across any park, any pitch where there's full data).

Breaking out Derrek Lee's pitches:



And Mark DeRosa's



More later....