Furthering a Discussion - Joakim Soria 2008-2010

I posted up some pitching numbers the other day, and Dave (of GooseJoak fame) and I started having a little discussion on how Joakim Soria was doing. In honor of Joakim getting his 100th Career Save yesterday (6th youngest in MLB history), and the fact that I told Dave I would, I grabbed his pitching stats from 2008 and 2009 and compared them to the numbers I've got so far for 2010. These calculations are the same ones used in my previous Fun with Numbers posts, so while they may not be the absolute most useful, I find them interesting.

Joakim Soria - 2008-2010


The only thing that really jumped out at me was his P/Out, that is up over 1 P/Out since his fantastic 2008 season, and half a pitch over last year. His P/BB is almost 2 better over 2008, and 1 better than '09, the %STR numbers are down a couple percent, but I hope as the year goes on that will come back up to around 66%. Joakim doesn't look to be having a bad year from these stats, and maybe it is just my perception... but Joakim seems to be laboring a bit at times this year. Hopefully the numbers prove out and my perception is just wrong.

Discuss.

Disclaimer: The raw data for 2008-2009 for these calculations was gathered from www.baseball-reference.com

Fun With Numbers Pt. 3

In a previous posting, Fun With Numbers Pt. 2, I did some of my own math to evaluate how the Royals pitching staff was doing through the first 15 games of the 2010 season. My original plan was to revisit these numbers every 15 games, well game 30 came and went and I was busy on the road, so I've crunched the numbers again after 45 games.

This time around I gave all the pitchers a letter grade also. These grades are based on 4 "stats" that I was concerned with at the time of Pt. 2, they are: Percentage of Strikes Thrown, Pitches per Walk, Pitches per Out, and Pitches per Batter Faced.

The pitchers are ranked against one another, with the pitcher having the best numbers for a stat given 100%, and the others a percentage of the best in that stat. After all those numbers are compiled, they are then given a letter grade based on your average High School lettering system. I'll admit, these numbers favor some pitchers who haven't thrown as much as others, but hopefully that will correct itself as the year goes on. If the bullpen solidifies itself that should help also, if not, I'll have to recalculate these based on stat/9 Innings Pitched (probably should do that anyway). So, now that you know how I came up with these numbers, please take a look at the grades, and let me know what you think.

Starters - Games 1-45


Starters - Grades for Games 1-45


Relievers - Games 1-45


Relievers - Grades for Games 1-45


Is it any surprise that some of these guys are no longer on the roster? These numbers may not be the best evaluation of pitchers, but I kinda like 'em, and they almost back up my gut feeling on these guys. Before I did this today, I was thinking Luke Hochevar would be the #2 starter on the list, but he ended up #3, just a bit behind Bannister.

Fun with Numbers Pt. 2

I finished scoring the game from the 20th this morning. I had to listen to it online in order to get it finished, and won't be able to get that one, and the game from yesterday, scanned until I get home tonight. So, since I can't post anything scorecard related, I thought I'd do a little number crunching.

Sure, this is all just a bunch of number junk, anyone can manipulate numbers to say whatever they want, but I enjoy playing with numbers, so bear with me. :) I had a mini-rant the other day about all the balls and walks I've been seeing from the Royals, in particular the bullpen, this year. I figured, lets make up some new stats to prove my point... well, not really make anything up, just twist the numbers a little differently to try and generate relevant data to my observations.

Here they are, I broke down the Royals pitching squad and gave them a ranking based upon P/BB (Pitches per Walk), %STR (percent of strikes thrown), P/Out (Pitches per Out), and P/BF (Pitches per Batter Faced). This is what the numbers look like after my simple calculations.


To give these numbers abit more perspective, I took the pitching stats for two additional teams, and compared them to the Royals. I grabbed the numbers for the Twins, who at 11-4 are doing pretty well, and I got the numbers for the Cubs, who have the same 6-9 record as the Royals. I didn't break them out by pitcher, just a team-as-a-whole stat line.


Now, these numbers are fairly simplistic, but I think if I calculated this out for every team they wouldn't look overly wrong. I think I'll go work work on that right now actually. See if that tree bears any fruit. Enjoy.