FanPost

Hoch's Stretch vs Wind-up Data

The recent observation that Luke's problem is pitching from the stretch seems plausible. Being curious, I compiled some data related to this notion to see how closely the numbers supported this.

2012

Empty

MenOn

Delta

Zack Greinke

.251

.257

.006

Justin Verlander

.212

.222

.010

Luis Mendoza

.273

.301

.028

Luke Hochevar

.254

.299

.045

Bruce Chen

.255

.313

.058

This table suggests that the best pitchers are roughly the same in wind-up and stretch situations, and if Luke has a stretch problem, you have to say the same for Bruce.

The next step (suggested in yesterday's thread) was to see how the wind-up versus stretch data showed in Good Luke/Bad Luke games.

Using Play Data from FanGraphs, I created two csv files that can be downloaded (below) for use in Excel. Feel free to change the ‘filter' field to run your own analysis. Below is a quick table using the data.

To keep things simple, I split the games into three groups using Game Score, and summed outs versus reached based (ie. not batting average or on-base percentage). The numbers show that Hoch is worse with men on based in each filter grouping, but suggests the problem is related more to having a bad game since he has a 45.9 Percent Reached with bases empty in bad games.

So Hochevar does have a wind-up versus stretch problem, but that doesn't seem to drive the Good Luke/Bad Luke bus.

Hoch Games Data CSV

Hoch Play Data CSV

Hgs_medium

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.