Monday, June 22, 2009

Cubs Pitching Staff - Best and Worst of 2009

Using some of my favorite PITCHf/x metrics, here are how the current Cubs have fared in 2009. I'm not including traded (Luis Vizcaino), injured (Chad Fox) or demoted (Jeff Samardzija). For individual pitch ratings, minimum 20 pitches thrown (that's not a a lot, but roll with it)

Run Value per 100 Pitches (rv100)
0 is "average", so a negative value means a pitcher (in this case) yields less runs per 100 than average.


Best Fastball Angel Guzman -1.664
Worst Fastball Sean Marshall 3.336

Best Sinker Jose Ascanio -5.760
Worst Sinker David Patton 2.933

Best Change/Split Jose Ascanio -2.739
Worst Change/Split Ted Lilly 1.703

Best Cutter Carlos Zambrano -3.260
Worst Cutter Jose Ascanio 3.377

Best Curve Jose Ascanio -1.982
Worst Curve Angel Guzman 3.190

Best Slider Randy Wells -2.627
Worst Slider Aaron Heilman 1.206

Best Reliever Angel Guzman -1.902
Worst Reliever David Patton 0.558

Best Starter Randy Wells -1.303
Worst Starter Rich Harden 0.551

Let's try some other metrics, too.

Highest GB% David Patton 56.1%
Lowest GB% Ted Lilly 32.7%

Highest LD% Aaron Heilman 20.5%
Lowest LD% Angel Guzman 12.4%

Highest HR/FB David Patton 0.188
Lowest HR/FB Carlos Marmol 0.031

Highest IFFB/FB Carlos Marmol 0.531
Lowest IFFB/FB David Patton 0.063

Highest Whiff Rich Harden 0.317
Lowest Whiff Carlos Zambrano 0.157

Highest IWZ Ted Lilly 0.625
Lowest IWZ Aaron Heilman 0.484

BTW, Lilly leads the majors in pitches In Wide Zone (2 ft plate).

You can download all the data used for this post (Excel).


2 comments:

JBrew said...

Harry - What is the difference between your rv100 and Fangraphs w(PitchType)/C?

For instance:
Guzman (-)2.63 wFB/C, (+) 2.29 wCB/C
Marshall (-1)1.21 wFB/C

Is is in the linear weights or the pitch classification?

Harry Pavlidis said...

There are multiple differences. First, they invert the +/- scale. I think you've noted that. The classifications they use are from Gameday. So, in Guzman's case, his cutter is misclassified as a slider or fastball at times, and I don't think they're getting his two-seamer.
And the weights are probably a little different, we're not using the same sample/baseline for the wOBA that is the key ingredient. They also make some park/league adjustments.