South Side Sox has a post up today on Luke Hochevar, so I figured I do the same with Gavin Floyd.
Stats courtesy of Stat Corner.
In 2010 Floyd profiled as a slight ground ball pitcher with an above average strikeout rate. That's a good combination. Floyd induced grounders on 48.9% of his batted balls, against a league average of 43.2%. Floyd struck out 18.9% of the batters he faced, above the league average for starters of 16%.
Floyd throws slightly more balls (37.8%) than the average (36.5%) but he makes up for it by missing a larger share of bats. Floyd got swinging strikes 9.4% of the time, better than the league average of 7.8%. In general, swinging strikes are an excellent gauge of a pitcher's stuff. Tim Lincecum's swinging strike percentage, for example, was 11.5% in 2010. Bruce Chen's was 7.5%.
Floyd's 2010 FIP: 3.52
Floyd's 2010 tRA: 3.82 (average is 4.45).
In terms of FIP (which is what Fangraphs WAR uses) 2010 was the best year of Floyd's career. Floyd has steadily improved since 2007, with his advanced stats getting incrementally better each season. Let's hope that stops in 2011.