Checking Out How Harang Works the Plate

by Slyde on Mar 26, 2010 1:52 PM EDT in Features

I've just recently started going back through all of the posts and articles that I bookmarked for later reading from back when I was buried with book work. I'm a fan of graphical demonstrations of data, so I really like this stuff from Harry Pavlidis. I experimented with the data myself to see if I could make similar charts and also to see how things looked for Aaron Harang. Let me know what you think. If you like them, I'll try to break down more pitchers this way.

The first chart is relative to the batter. While the inside and outside goes left to right on the chart, whether or not the pitch is inside or outside has been determined strictly by the batters hand. As you can see, Harang likes to work middle-out and he's usually around the plate:

Harang-all_pitches_medium

If we break it down by righties and lefties, we see that he has a tendency to come inside more to lefties than he does right-handers:

Harang-vslhb_medium

We might also learn a bit from how Harang pitches based on the count. I got kind of wrapped up in the conversation in the other thread this morning and didn't manage my time well or else I'd have more of these charts for you. But for now, here's how he pitches with 2 strikes and with 3 balls:

As you can see, he hits the fat part of the plate MUCH more when he needs to throw a strike. That kids is why you shouldn't get to 3 ball counts.

Finally, I took a quick stab at look how Harang worked the zone from top to bottom. He says that he is trying to keep the ball down more in this camp. This chart would show that he did have a tendency to work up in the zone last year:

Harang-topbottom_medium

One thing I need to do is see what the value of each zone is. I'd also like to see how he uses his individual pitches. That'll be a post for another day though. Let me know what you think. Are these graphs helpful?

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Wonderful

Absolutely love this slyde.
-j

I write at:
Beyond the Boxscore | Red Reporter | Basement-Dwellers.com | Twitter: @jinazreds

by JinAZ on Mar 26, 2010 4:19 PM EDT reply actions

excellent work Slyder

i’d love to see how he worked in the zone in previous years. was he more up in the zone last year than previous years? why dont you take care of that this weekend and have it in first thing Monday.

by Charlie Scrabbles on Mar 26, 2010 4:26 PM EDT reply actions

That is something I want to do

but I don’t have the data right now. When I get it…watch out!

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by Slyde on Mar 26, 2010 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions

I really like Harang.

But I am worried that he may be 8th best starter in the organization right now.

by Eastwindquinn on Mar 26, 2010 6:53 PM EDT reply actions

8th best?

I really hope this is just hyperbole on your part.

Don't take anything I say too seriously, I sure don't.

by RedsMasochist on Mar 27, 2010 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions

No,

He looks spooked to me, it may be nothing, or it may be the ugly end.
On any given day, he is the best the reds have. On every fifth day; he might be terrible.

by Eastwindquinn on Mar 28, 2010 1:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Interesting...but what about his pitchevelocity and the movement that he has on those pitches?

That is worrying me.

Potential doesn't win games.

by Madville on Mar 26, 2010 8:17 PM EDT reply actions

go to Fangraphs Mads

you will see that in 2009 Harang’s fastball average velocity was 90.4, it was 89.6 in 2008, 90.1 in 2007, and 90.4 in 2006.

Velocity wasn’t the issue for Harang last season.

Volquez, Bailey, Cueto, Chapman, and Leake. The future is so bright I have to wear sunglasses.

by justin007000 on Mar 26, 2010 8:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Movement or location or pitch selection?

Potential doesn't win games.

by Madville on Mar 26, 2010 11:04 PM EDT up reply actions

this is cool

if you could get the data points for things like perfect games and no-hitter, it would be awesome to compare them to your typical 7 or 8 hit game.

by Heeringa on Mar 26, 2010 10:31 PM EDT reply actions

Interesting

Naturally, it would seem to depend on the hitter whether the hitter prefers a pitch in a location or not. “Fat” might seem like “line drive” to some people but maybe not. It could just be a 280-foot popup.

But compared to/with other corresponding data, this could be pretty valuable for helping a pitcher change his habits.

The baseball-bat collision is violent and involves large forces which act over a very short time and which compress the ball to a fraction of its normal size. -- Alan M. Nathan

by johnu1 on Mar 27, 2010 1:03 AM EDT reply actions

yep

that’s the next step. I really just wanted to see if people liked the data presented in this manner. I had intended to do a more interesting post, but time got away from me.

What really is missing is the run value of Harang’s pitches in each slot. The more I think about it, these graphs don’t really stand on their own, but they could be good combined with 2 or three other graphs to do a breakdown on a pitcher.

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by Slyde on Mar 27, 2010 7:49 AM EDT up reply actions

The run values would be interesting

And when the hit fx stuff becomes available, hot dog!

I’m very curious to see how Harang does early this year. Hopefully Price has really identified and remedied problems in Harang’s stride or something else that created a lot of elevated pitches. We shall see.

by ken on Mar 29, 2010 9:32 PM EDT up reply actions

Interesting stuff, though it could use some context.

I wouldn’t mind seeing how Harang compares to other pitchers in terms of leaving pitches in the “fat” part of the zone, as well as how he compares to himself when he was a frontline starter a few years ago.

by Geki on Mar 27, 2010 1:33 AM EDT reply actions