Friday, October 24, 2008

A Quick Glance at Plate Discipline

I was perusing my new favorite site fangraphs.com last night and started looking at some plate discipline numbers.  O-Swing % measure how often a player swing at a pitch outside of the strike zone.

So who has the best "eye" on the Brewers?

Mike Cameron, with an O-Swing % of 17.77%.  Second?  Rickie Weeks, at 19.36%. 

On the other end are Braun (34.28%), Hart (31.74%) and Fielder (27.94%).

So what, if anything, does this mean to you?


7 comments:

DannyNoonan said...

That comparatively Cameron and Weeks are pretty bad at hitting pitches even when they're in the strike zone? Or Braun et al are pretty good at hitting bad pitches?

E.S.K. said...

It tells me conventional wisdom is fucking dumb...as usual

Anonymous said...

How so?

E.S.K. said...

"only swing at strikes"

Lawyerly said...

Sorry E but that doesn't follow. Danny might be a bit closer.

I think the point is that bad hitters can't hit a ball no matter where it is. Knowing this they probably try to compensate by only swinging at "good pitches."

Good hitters, because they are good, are more aggressive, and are therefore more likely to swing at a pitch outside the strike zone.

Does that site also have stats about a batter's average when swinging at a pitch in the strike zone and when swinging at a pitch outside the strike zone?

E.S.K. said...

by what measure is Mike Cameron a bad hitter? Maybe if he expanded his zone a bit he'd decrease his strike out rate? Counter-intuitive, perhaps, but I'd imagine his strikeout's looking are rather high relative to the league average.

E.S.K. said...

oh, and the link is provided, you can find all the stats you'd like.