Derek Lowe’s New Approach vs. RHB’s
April 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm by Kevin Orris under Atlanta Braves
Although Derek Lowe is 37 years old, it appears he has a new favorite weapon against right handed batters… his slider. Check out the chart below for further proof, courtesy of joelefkowitz.com.
|
Year |
# of Pitches | Selection % | Swing % | Swing-Miss% |
| 2010 v. RHB | 279 | 15.9 | 48.0 | 50.7 |
| 2011 v. RHB | 72 | 37.3 | 52.8 | 44.7 |
With Lowe’s big switch to his slider (or so it appears), he’s gone from throwing his sinker 61.9% of the time against RHB in 2010 to 32.1% in 2011. Yes, he’s throwing his sinker less than his slider.
It’s important to consider the sample size, since Lowe has only started four games thus far in 2011, but it’s still a trend worth watching.
While it’s good to see that Lowe has become comfortable with his slider, its being hit for a line drive 38.5% of the time – that’s never good.
Keep an eye on this trend tonight and we’ll see how his previous four starts stack up against tonight’s on three days’ rest.
I’ll be posting more observances of Braves statistical tendencies over the next few days. Looking for a trend in particular? Email me at kevinorris@capitolavenueclub.com and I’ll do my best to sort it out.
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Thanks for the interesting post.
Based on my observations (of just a handful of games), Heyward seems to be swinging at more pitches earlier in the count, especially the first pitch, than last year. I’d be interested in two things: 1) is this true compared to last year? and 2) on balls he puts in play on the first pitch, what is the % of line drives/hard hit balls? Seems to me that he’s struck a lot of them very well but just been unlucky.
Thanks
Kevin comes out of the wood work! Welcome back.
No worries – I’m back to normal now, as in, this is my only writing obligation now.
Looking forward to posting as frequently as possible, ya know, since I haven’t posted anything since the season began.
I’d be interested in seeing an analysis, over the first few games, of who should have been used in relief (based on a pitchers’ perceived strength ) vs the pitcher that was actually deployed. As it’s early in the season, and therefore the sample size is small, this may be be a practical way to quantify how much the CAC-reading public disagrees with FG’s bullpen usage.
Thoughts?
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