Your ‘Wednesday Graph’ is coming early this week. I decided to make a gigantic team plate approach graph — using the 9 players on the team with the most plate appearances. Red circles are swings, green circles are non-swings.
(Click to view the extra-large version. Large version is a little clearer.)
Players are listed in no particular order.
Quick thoughts
* Sandoval still swings at a lot of pitches outside of the strike zone. He’s got a nice distribution of outside-of-the-zone swings because he’s switch-hitter.
* Check the large grouping of swings for Aaron Rowand down and to the right of the strike zone. That’s prime slider/curve/breaking pitch locations.
* Huff has done a pretty good job of staying in the zone. His current walk rate of 11.8% is a career high.
* Has Nate turned the corner when it comes to his plate approach? Our sample size is small, but for a guy with a questionable plate approach — ie: lots of swings in and out of the zone — his graph surprised me. I was expecting more swings outside of the zone, but he looks respectable for now. He, like Huff, is walking at a career best right now (currently 8.8%, career 5.2%).
Any thoughts?
