I wanted to post this before I forgot about it. Here is a plot from Pablo Sandoval’s 7th inning at-bat against the Rockies yesterday. He was facing Matt Belisle (with the bases loaded) and after fouling the first pitch off and swinging and missing at the next, he fouled off 7 straight pitches, took a ball, fouled off another, and then flied out weakly to left field. Ultimately, the AB wasn’t productive but it was such a typical Sandoval AB (ie: swing at everything) that I thought it would be fun to plot out.
One thing about Sandoval is that he’s not waiting around to swing the bat. This 7th inning AB was good for a total of 13 pitches. Pablo’s 4 other AB’s in the game were good for a total of 14 pitches. According to The Hardball Times, Sandoval is averaging 3.5 pitches per plate appearance this season. That puts him in the lower back half of the NL for fewest pitches seen per PA. Yunel Escobar is seeing the fewest pitches per PA with 3.0 and Bengie Molina, hacker extraordinaire, is 2nd to Escobar with 3.1 pitches per PA.


