Visualizing GB/FB Ratios, Split By Batter Handedness
by danmerqury on Feb 22, 2011 7:01 AM PST
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PrintIn November, I developed a way of visualizing GB/FB ratios as vectors. After thinking about Brad Ziegler's mammoth platoon splits the other day, I had a thought—why not go back to the vector visualization, but split it by batter handedness? Here it is. Click for a much bigger version.
Some thoughts and methodology notes after the jump.
- First off, methodology. In this visual, a hypothetical pitcher who generated 100% groundballs would have a horizontal line, and a pitcher who got all flyballs would have a vertical one. Everybody else is in between, obviously. (For the math inclined: the arctangent of the FB/GB ratio gives the angle of each line, with zero as the horizontal.)
- To avoid cluttering up the chart too much (and since I couldn't find contact numbers split by batter handedness), the length of each line is constant for everybody.
- It's in the legend, but I'll repeat it here—for each pitcher, the green line corresponds to the GB/FB ratio against left handed batters. Gold is against righties.
- Lefties are on the top row, and the righties are on the bottom. By organizing it like that, the pattern becomes more evident—pitchers, even the flyball ones, tend to generate more groundballs against batters of the same handedness as themselves, although some pitchers don't seem to exhibit very much difference.
- The big outlier? Gio Gonzalez. His batted ball splits look like a RHP's, and I'm not sure why. Michael Wuertz is another one, but the I'd argue that the difference between facing lefties and righties for him is small enough to be about the same.
- Also, note that for all of these pitchers, they have enough of a sample size with each split for the results to be statistically significant. Groundball and flyball rates stabilize far quicker than something like batting average or OPS.
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Very cool
for all the attention Cahill gets for being a ground ball pitcher, it looks like Anderson’s almost as good. Its just that Trevor gets more ground balls since there are more rightie hitters.
Solar Panels - PVPower.com
Love this whole series
For Gio and Wuertz’s odd splits…maybe it’s something to do with having a devastating breaking ball? Just spitballing…
Also, I’d kinda forgotten that we’d signed Brian Fuentes. Good times.
Idea?
Just an idea, but would it be possible to scale the vector lengths to a opposing batter offensive statistic (i.e. OPS+) with a shaded arc showing an OPS+ of 100 for reference? I can imagine how a coach could quickly use this as a quick reference during a game. Keep it up! I love these infographics!
I did that with the other ones (I used contact%)
but with the small size of each graph, I figured it’d be easier and more clear just to focus on angle.
Imgunna call this the DLD
so some guy from NBC thinks the A’s will finish 2nd while winning 86 games. Not much of a stretch.
But the funny things are #1 he calls this “a contract year” for Geren, implying that the only way Geren keeps his job is if they win, and #2 he says the A’s haven’t won more than 76 games since 2007.
Now, I will give him a pass on the “in a year” thing, cuz even though the sentence suggests you should add up all years, I know that’s not what he meant. But come on, at the top of the summary he wrot the A’s record in 2010 was 81-81.
I am only pretty on the outside
dannycakes can also be called "hipsterbot"
I also like how he lists Edwin Encarnacion as a "departure"
How will we ever replace him?
by Glorious Mundy on Feb 22, 2011 1:04 PM PST up reply actions
for the ladies of AN
i thought this was cool. First Woman to Pitch Spring Training BP
Interestingly, she’ll be throwing BP to our very own A’s as well.
the artist formerly known as inbillywetrust
Love this...thanks!
"Oh who am I kidding? The A's and Giants could stage a pillow fight, and I'd still care who wins." -67Marquez
by baseballgirl on Feb 22, 2011 3:29 PM PST up reply actions
I actually am taking part of this story for tomorrow's post...I credited you, hope that's okay!
"Oh who am I kidding? The A's and Giants could stage a pillow fight, and I'd still care who wins." -67Marquez
by baseballgirl on Feb 22, 2011 3:55 PM PST up reply actions
Great...I'd like to talk about this further.
"Oh who am I kidding? The A's and Giants could stage a pillow fight, and I'd still care who wins." -67Marquez
by baseballgirl on Feb 22, 2011 4:24 PM PST up reply actions
Saw this its awesome
and not just for women
I am only pretty on the outside
dannycakes can also be called "hipsterbot"
Right, I'm in favor of women's baseball as well.
It's because he derived his torque from the buttocks -- cityplANner
by WaddellCanseco on Feb 22, 2011 10:23 PM PST up reply actions
Thank goodness
he has baseball. I’m scared to think of what he would have been without it.
"You ain't got nothin to say, it was perfect" -Dallas Braden, 05/09/10
hell hath no fury like a Cowboys fan scorned. -Leopold Bloom
That stuff you eat you know like first thing in the morning.
Shoot what is it called? Um… its like flakes and stuff? Right after you get up…?
Visit my blog the Todd Van Poppel Rookie Card Retirement Plan!!
it's scary. i was gonna say borderline scary, but he's so far past the line he can no longer see the line.
the artist formerly known as inbillywetrust
Past what line?
I just read it after reading these comments, thinking it would be “way out there” and I don’t see it.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
read it again. the guy can't finish a sentence. he can't remember anything. he's either quirky or nuts.
the artist formerly known as inbillywetrust
rec'd
Yeah. Um. Well. Um. No. I’m gonna say no.
amazing
If Pennington manages 17 HRs, I’ll vow to consume an article of clothing to achieve a humorous effect --Joey C.
so the ground / fly ratio goes up over time for all our pitchers, regardless of the handedness of the batter? does it start in the first inning or at birth?
why would you present the data like this?
A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones."
-BB 07/27/05
Why wouldn't he?
"As the tag line of my favorite dirty joke would have it: 'Keep your hat on. We could wind up miles from here.'" ~Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus
Great stuff again Dan...
I wondering if being a hard thrower results in the small differences in pitcher splits. With Bailey and Balfour (Mid 90’s guys who occasionally hit high) showing almost no difference.
I believe Balfour throws a sinker in his arsenal but his splits don’t reflect that. It’s interesting.
by OnlybuyBeaneJerseys on Feb 22, 2011 3:07 PM PST reply actions
Hmm.
That could be something. I’d like to go back and look at pitch movement, too. Maybe there’s some kind of correlation between certain kinds of pitches and small splits/large splits.
Dan, you are awesome.
I don’t always understand it, but your charts are amazing.
"Oh who am I kidding? The A's and Giants could stage a pillow fight, and I'd still care who wins." -67Marquez
Itd be neat to do a hybrid of these charts
Especially with guys in the pen that showed certain situations. Like as an option type thing. For example: you have a high pressure situation with a left-handed hitter up and the chart would have the lines of each guy in that scenario, so you could say, oh Ziegler will keep it on the ground. I am all for complicate dgraphs when I am not the one making them :) Great work!
Visit my blog the Todd Van Poppel Rookie Card Retirement Plan!!
Oooh, that does sound interesting. A live tracker thing would be awesome, although I have nowhere near the tech knowledge required to do that.
The only wrinkle I can see is that by splitting by batter handedness AND leverage (or anything else), you’re shrinking the sample size more and more. One split was almost too much.
since there's no new DLD i'll just put this here...
Every baseball game and play since 1951 on your iPad
A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones."
-BB 07/27/05
It is possibly the greatest application of ALL TIME.
"Oh who am I kidding? The A's and Giants could stage a pillow fight, and I'd still care who wins." -67Marquez
by baseballgirl on Feb 22, 2011 4:24 PM PST up reply actions
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