Fukudome's Declining Zone Judgment - Part 2

In Part One, we saw what we already knew, Kosuke Fukudome is not having the success he had at the plate earlier in the season. He looks like the guy who unnerved many Cubs fans during Spring Training.

To start, this is a re-work of something from Part One, which will remind you of a notable increase in swings out of the zone, along with some more takes in the zone. He's also whiffing more, in the zone.



First question - does he show a different trend based on pitcher hand? Small sample warning for July.



He actually looks pretty stable against RHP, but LHP seem to be giving him more trouble as the season has moved on. I think we've seen this with our own eyes, too. And Fangraphs sees it, too.

Power drop



Did I mention the power drops against lefties?

Another split from Fangraphs, BB% - the K% doesn't vary by pitcher hand for Kosuke, so the K/BB looks pretty much like this, too:



I'm biased towards the first pitch, too much so, perhaps (hence the "bias"). So, I decided to look at Kosuke on the first pitch. It was interesting.

Fukudome swings at a majority of first pitches in the zone against righties, but takes more strikes against lefties. The season actually started with Fukudome slightly inverted in this regard, but his numbers against lefties kept changing, as the season progresses.



July is a small sample, so it should be taken with some salt. Four grains, one for each pitch. Whiff rates are based on small samples, too, but are intriguing.

On first pitches in the zone, Fukudome whiffs on 12% of swings against righties, but 29% against lefties. That's a big difference.

And it's been a bigger problem lately. Against lefties, on first pitches in the zone, he whiffed on 2 of his first 17 swings (11.8%), but on 4 of his last 7 (57.1%).

Those are tiny samples, but, his performance has been horrid, and these numbers stick out like a sore thumb. He's taking too many first pitch strikes against lefties, and he's whiffing more when he swings at them.

I'm going to punt to Part 3 and look at lefty pitch selections against Kosuke.