Grady Sizemore's Plate Discipline Problems

Interesting article from FanGraphs with some pitchFx charts explaining Grady's problems at the plate. Bottom line is that he's swinging at bad pitches and not swinging at good pitches.

about 2 years ago supermarioelia 22 comments 0 recs |

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I’d like to see that chart against RHP. As discussed, I think his overall performance has been highly influenced by a large number of PA’s against lefties as well as a very poor performance against them.

For what it’s worth, I’ve really liked how he’s swung the bat the first two games of this series. Lots of good swings.

by TribeJay on May 13, 2010 1:54 PM EDT reply actions

For what it’s worth, I really didn’t like how he swung the bat the last game of this series. Lots of bad swings.

by TribeJay on May 13, 2010 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions

In 2010 39.8% of Grady’s plate appearances have been against lefties. In his career he has faced lefties 31.3% of the time.

by odradek on May 13, 2010 10:20 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m sure odradek will be incensed at the opening suggestion that Grady was a (gasp!) TOP FIVE PLAYER!

by Jay on May 13, 2010 3:17 PM EDT reply actions

Couple of interesting, related notes.

Even if you shift the focus from 2006-08 to 2007-09 — swapping out Grady’s best season for his worst — Grady still ends up ranked #13.

The only pitcher to reach 20 WAR for 2006-08 is Sabathia, at exactly 20.0.

So we had two of the top five players in the majors for those three seasons. Crazy.

by Jay on May 13, 2010 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions

And zero WS to show for it. Thanks Wedge.

-Erik

by drerikbrady on May 13, 2010 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Just makes me think, maybe we were more like those late-90s Mariners clubs than I realized. We seemed like such a balanced club in 2007.

by Jay on May 13, 2010 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Eric Wedge did not pitch games 1 and 5 of the 2007 ALCS.

by piersall on May 13, 2010 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

Exactly. Thanks, roulette-wheel playoff system.

by still ill on May 14, 2010 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Hard to deny from 2006 to 2008. Especially 2006, his age 23 season, which will be his career year. The last fantasy ranking for hitters—acknowledging the limitations of fantasy rankings—had him as the 50th best hitter in the majors. And is WAR the ne plus ultra of player rankings? Isn’t it yet another Fangraphs reductionism?

by odradek on May 13, 2010 6:33 PM EDT up reply actions

When you want to rank “top overall player,” some reduction is needed. WAR is about as good of a reduction as anything else out there.

by Jay on May 13, 2010 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m trying to move toward this type of thinking. I think I need to write things like this down on notecards and carry them with me: “Sizemore’s age 23 season will be his career year.” Although, in all honesty, it might just end with me walking away from sports altogether.

by dgcambridge on May 13, 2010 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions

There’s a big difference between best hitters and best overall players. WAR isn’t a perfect stat — and there is no perfect stat to measure a player’s overall abilities — but it’s about as good as any of them out there to measure overall value. And from 2006-2008 he was a top five (or so) player and looked like he was going to be there for a few more years. Of course, that hasn’t happened, but we didn’t know that at the time.

by Buckeye Brad on May 14, 2010 9:55 AM EDT up reply actions

You know this Hafner guy usta be a pretty good player too. A lot of good that’s gonna do us this year and in the future.

Resident LGT results-oriented boob.

by mauichuck on May 15, 2010 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Not really the point at all. Obviously Grady’s stock is down.

by Jay on May 15, 2010 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Which only makes it impossible to trade him before he bolts. At least in early ‘09 is was possible but unlikely. Now we’ll get exactly oogatz for him.

Resident LGT results-oriented boob.

by mauichuck on May 15, 2010 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions