Quick Pitch: Rasmus’ Bermuda Triangle; Romero vs Leadoff Hitters; EE 3 Year Chase Split

Another Quick Pitch (mini-post). A few approach issues for struggling Toronto Blue Jays.

Romero’s Leadoff Woes

Last season, Romero allowed 40.4% of leadoff batters to reach via hit; walk; hbp— the #1 rate amongst pitchers with 75+ IP. This includes 30 BB; 7 HR; 44 hits; 4 HBP. Yes, 30 BB in 193 leadoff PA!!!

 

TOB PA AB IP H HR BB SO HBP WHIP
78 193 159 38 44 7 30 19 4 1.947

Oddly enough, his overall SLG against of .440 is roughly middle of the pack for MLB starters. Confidence is a big part of Romero’s game; Let’s hope he regains a bit of his swagger, sorts out his mechanics and returns to at minimum his 33.5% leadoff hitter reach rate of 2011.

Colby Rasmus’ Bermuda Triangle of Production

I debated whether or not to include text with this write-up. The below charts are pretty self explanatory.

Rasmus vs LHP & RHP, 2012 based upon ‘lower half’ out of the strike zone pitch location.

Batting Average (.175)
strike-zone-16

ISO (.078)

strike-zone-17

K (75) vs BB (18)

strike-zone-18

Nearly 50% swing rate on low pitches over the plate!

Includes

  • .275/.442/.325 vs Fastballs – 11 hits in 40 AB, extra base hits include 2 doubles, 12 BB vs 11K
  • .146/.185/.252 vs ‘Soft’–change, curve, slider – 58 K in 108 PA, only 5 extra base hits

Clearly, Rasmus needs to avoid this hacking at low out of the zone location. On the plus side he’s walking on low fastballs, and earning a few cheap singles. But when he’s fooled by off-speed he’s producing at NL pitcher levels. I imagine Motta and company have addressed this issue all spring; we’ll have to wait and see how Rasmus adjusts to this pitch location.

 

EE’s eye 

One of the biggest improvements in EE’s game over the past couple of seasons is his batting eye.

Chase Rate (2010 – 2012)

  • 28.8% – 2010
  • 24.2% – 2011
  • 20.0%  – 2012

While he’s improved against all pitch types, the biggest improvement is against fastballs (all varieties). 2010 chase rate vs ‘Hard’ = 26.5%. This rate improved to 19.7% last season.

 

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