A Look at What Pitches the Royals Have and Haven't Hit so Far

This exercise is about what pitches the Royals have or haven't hit in during this post season. The emphasis on being if they've hit them with no concern on where the ball went after they hit them. We do of course care about where the ball went if they didn't hit them as they generally end up inside the catcher's glove.

The Royals have seen 1,229 pitches so far in the playoffs. Here's the breakdown by pitch category including the breakdown of the regular season:

Pitch Type	Regular	% of Total	Playoffs	% of Total
FB	13278	60%	770	63%
Breaking	6439	28%	337	27%
Offspeed	2723	12%	122	10%

So the theme has continued  into the playoffs as far as the spread of pitches against the Royals. Interestingly during the regular season the Royals saw the least amount of fastballs as a percentage of total pitches. So far this post season they've seen the 2nd least for teams that reached at least the divisional series (1% more than Saint Louis).

Percent of pitches as fastballs:

Rank	Fastballs	Batter	Total Pitches	Percent  of Pitches
1	104	Nori Aoki	136	76.47%
2	100	Mike Moustakas	133	75.19%
3	85	Eric Hosmer	139	61.15%
4	72	Lorenzo Cain	118	61.02%
5	78	Omar Infante	128	60.94%
6	80	Alcides Escobar	140	57.14%
7	83	Alex Gordon	152	54.61%
8	71	Salvador Perez	138	51.45%
9	62	Billy Butler	122	50.82%

Batting average against fastballs:

Rank	Results	Batter	Average
1	11 for 19	Eric Hosmer	.579
2	5 for 13	Alex Gordon	.385
3	7 for 23	Alcides Escobar	.304
4	5 for 17	Lorenzo Cain	.294
5	5 for 18	Nori Aoki	.278
6	4 for 15	Billy Butler	.267
7	5 for 19	Omar Infante	.263
8	5 for 21	Mike Moustakas	.238
9	3 for 20	Salvador Perez	.150

Hosmer has hit fastballs really well in the post season, better than what he did earlier this year and his career.

	BA	% of Pitches
Playoffs	0.579	61.1%
2014	0.295	57.3%
2013	0.325	58.7%
Career	0.304	58.5%

Hosmer has actually been one of the best fastball hitters in the playoffs since Pitch FX was tracked in 2007:

2014

Rank	Batter	Results	BA
1	AJ Ellis	7 for 12	0.583
2	Eric Hosmer	11 for 20	0.550
3	Jon Jay	8 for 15	0.533
4	Hanley Ramirez	5 for 10	0.500
5	Anthony Rendon	6 for 14	0.428

Since 2007 (min of 10):

Rank	Batter	Results	BA
1	Carlos Gonzalez	9 for 13	0.692
2	Eric Hosmer	11 for 20	0.550
3	Ryan Ludwick	6 for 12	0.500
4	Brandon Inge	6 for 13	0.461
5	Freddie Freeman	6 for 13	0.461

Now for breaking balls:

Rank	Results	Batter	Total Pitches	Percent of Pitches as Breaking Balls
1	56	Salvador Perez	138	40.58%
2	49	Billy Butler	122	40.16%
3	49	Alcides Escobar	140	35.00%
4	40	Omar Infante	128	31.25%
5	42	Alex Gordon	152	27.63%
6	32	Lorenzo Cain	118	27.12%
7	32	Eric Hosmer	139	23.02%
8	19	Mike Moustakas	133	14.29%
9	13	Nori Aoki	136	9.56%

Rank	Results	Batter	batting_avg
1	7 for 14	Lorenzo Cain	0.500
2	1 for 3	Nori Aoki	0.333
3	3 for 12	Alcides Escobar	0.250
4	1 for 4	Mike Moustakas	0.250
5	2 for 11	Billy Butler	0.182
6	1 for 6	Alex Gordon	0.167
7	1 for 6	Eric Hosmer	0.167
8	1 for 8	Omar Infante	0.125
9	1 for 12	Salvador Perez	0.083

Hosmer is getting and crushing fastball, yet when teams feed him breaking balls he's struggling. Cain has been very good against breaking balls. For your pleasure, here is the event log for Cain vs a breaking ball:

2-Oct	Ground Out
2-Oct	Ground Out
2-Oct	Fly Out
2-Oct	Line Out
3-Oct	Single
3-Oct	Line Out
3-Oct	Strike Out
10-Oct	Double
10-Oct	Single
11-Oct	Single
11-Oct	Pop Out
11-Oct	Single
11-Oct	Single
11-Oct	Double

Since October 10th, Lorenzo Cain is 6-7 on breaking balls and will carry a hit streak, if you consider 3 a streak, going into tomorrow's game and further until he ends an at-bat with a breaking ball.

And finally, offspeed pitches:

Rank	Batter	Total Pitches	Precent of Total Pitches as Offspeed
1	Nori Aoki	136	13.97%
2	Alex Gordon	152	13.82%
3	Eric Hosmer	139	12.23%
4	Lorenzo Cain	118	11.86%
5	Mike Moustakas	133	10.53%
6	Billy Butler	122	9.02%
7	Alcides Escobar	140	7.86%
8	Salvador Perez	138	6.52%
9	Omar Infante	128	3.91%

Rank	Results	Batter	BA
1	1 for 2	Mike Moustakas	0.500
2	1 for 3	Eric Hosmer	0.333
3	1 for 6	Nori Aoki	0.167
4	0 for 3	Alex Gordon	.000
5	0 for 1	Salvador Perez	.000
6	0 for 1	Billy Butler	.000
7	0 for 2	Lorenzo Cain	.000
8	0 for 1	Omar Infante	.000
9	N/A	Alcides Escobar	N/A

Soooooooo throw more offspeed pitches to the Royals. They were the 20th worst in baseball against changeups this year and have the most strikeouts as a team via offspeed pitches this post season. The Giants have 6 pitchers who throw a changeup/splitter for 10%+ of their pitches.

Rank	Results	Pitcher	Total Pitches	Percent of Total Pitches as Changeup
1	415	Jean Machi	917	45.26%
2	479	Tim Lincecum	2665	17.97%
3	415	Tim Hudson	2784	14.91%
4	407	Ryan Vogelsong	3058	13.31%
5	185	Yusmeiro Petit	1646	11.24%
6	90	Sergio Romo	849	10.60%
7	88	Jake Peavy	1162	7.57%
8	247	Madison Bumgarner	3372	7.33%
9	40	Javier Lopez	599	6.68%
10	53	Jeremy Affeldt	810	6.54%
11	21	Santiago Casilla	844	2.49%
12	1	Hunter Strickland	95	1.05%