A Few Good Stats

The Society for American Baseball Research celebrates SABR Day each year on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. We took part by spending a little time on Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, ultimately sharing a quick discovery in tweet form: 

"For 16 years (age 21-36) Yogi Berra never OPS+'d below 109." 

Below are few different baseball stats for this Pro Bowl Sunday.

Most Pitches per Plate Appearance

	PA	Pit	Pit/PA
Paul Goldschmidt	178	788	4.43
Curtis Granderson*	692	3069	4.43
Adam Dunn*	499	2184	4.38
Mike Napoli	432	1889	4.37
Jayson Werth	652	2833	4.35
Bobby Abreu*	588	2549	4.34
Brad Hawpe*	217	936	4.31
Chris Parmelee*	88	378	4.3
Jose Bautista	656	2805	4.28
Jim Thome*	326	1394	4.28

Fewest Pitches per Plate Appearance

	PA	Pit	Pit/PA
Yuniesky Betancourt	585	1846	3.16
Vladimir Guerrero	591	1901	3.22
Andy Dirks*	236	777	3.29
Eliezer Alfonzo	80	265	3.31
Aramis Ramirez	627	2080	3.32
Vernon Wells	531	1804	3.4
Ronny Paulino	248	846	3.41
Miguel Tejada	345	1180	3.42
Magglio Ordonez	357	1224	3.43
Delmon Young	504	1734	3.44

Lowest Swing Percentage on 3-0*

Ryan Braun (1 of 47) 2.1%

Alex Avila (1 of 44) 2.3%

Ben Zobrist (1 of 43) 2.3%

Shane Victorino (1 of 39) 2.6%

Nick Markakis (1 of 37) 2.7%

Highest Swing Percentage on 3-0*

Andre Ethier (15 of 41) 37%

Torii Hunter (12 of 33) 36%

Justin Upton (11 of 35) 31%

Albert Pujols (15 of 52) 29%

Ryan Howard (16 of 57) 28%

*Minimum 29 PA with 3-0 count (League Average)

We looked for batters with good combinations of patience and power, last February. The following is an exercise in patience and contact. According to Baseball-Reference, there were twenty-two batters in 2011 that swung at more than 51% of pitches seen.

Below are these free-swinging 22, by lowest contact %.

	AS/Pit	Con
Carlos Peguero*	57%	64%
Miguel Olivo	56%	64%
Bill Hall	52%	66%
Brandon Wood	52%	69%
Eliezer Alfonzo	57%	71%
Josh Hamilton*	55%	73%
Tyler Colvin*	53%	74%
Adam Jones	56%	75%
Juan Francisco*	55%	75%
Mark Trumbo	53%	75%
Rod Barajas	52%	76%
Jeff Francoeur	54%	78%
Juan Uribe	52%	78%
Carlos Guillen#	52%	78%
Delmon Young	54%	79%
Pablo Sandoval#	57%	80%
Vladimir Guerrero	59%	81%
Aramis Ramirez	54%	82%
Brandon Phillips	53%	82%
Andy Dirks*	53%	82%
Yuniesky Betancourt	56%	84%
Magglio Ordonez	52%	86%

Carlos Peguero and King Felix

The top two spots of this list are teammates on the Mariners. Imagine how many strikeouts Felix Hernandez would rack up if he could face Peguero and Olivo. Mariners batting coach Chris Chambliss has an uphil battle with them.

Bill Hall is a free agent, but placing third on this leader board will not help him gain employment.

Brandon Wood, Eliezer Alfonso, and Tyler Colvin are on the Rockies. Their batting coach, Carney Lansford, was a good contact hitter. Can he connect with his hacking pupils?

Pablo Sandoval and Vladimir Guerrero have been known as free-swinging power hitters with good contact skills, so it is apropos to see them adjacent to one another here. Aramis Ramirez, Brandon Phillips, and Yuniesky Betancourt also stand out as well known aggressive hitters who make contact.

After a winter of cockfighting, Aramis looks ready to summer in Milwaukee.