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Still high on leverage
By egrissom | February 6, 2009
Last week I looked at how some Phillies hitters performed in situations tagged as high leverage by Baseball-Reference. Today I wanted to look at how the pitchers fared in high leverage situations.
First of all, not all the members of the staff appeared in high leverage situations with the same regularity. Here’s the percentage of batters that each pitcher who threw for the Phils in ‘08 faced in high leverage situations:
Player |
Batters faced |
High leverage |
Percent |
Gordon |
139 |
83 |
59.7 |
Lidge |
292 |
140 |
47.9 |
Romero |
255 |
108 |
42.4 |
Durbin |
365 |
128 |
35.1 |
Madson |
340 |
93 |
27.4 |
Blanton |
305 |
67 |
22.0 |
Eyre |
53 |
10 |
18.9 |
Walrond |
49 |
9 | 18.4 |
Moyer |
841 |
139 |
16.5 |
Seanez |
189 |
31 |
16.4 |
Myers |
817 |
117 |
14.3 |
Eaton |
478 |
67 |
14.0 |
Hamels |
914 |
123 |
13.5 |
Happ |
138 |
18 |
13.0 |
Kendrick |
722 |
92 |
12.7 |
Swindle |
24 |
2 | 8.3 |
Condrey |
303 |
25 |
8.3 |
Carpenter |
5 | 0 | 0.0 |
So Gordon was the Phillie who had the highest percentage of his batter’s faced come in high leverage situations, while Andrew Carpenter didn’t face anyone in a high leverage situation all year long (he faced just five hitters in ‘08). Important to notice is while the bullpen guys at the top face a higher percentage of batters in high leverage situations, the actual number of hitters faced in high leverage situations compared to the starters is not all that different. Moyer, for example, faced 139 hitters in high leverage situations while Lidge faced 140 despite the fact that Lidge was pitching in high leverage (and presumably, higher leverage) situations more regularly.
Of the 18 pitchers above, 13 faced at least 25 batters in high leverage situations in 2008. Of those 13, going by the OPS that opposing hitters put up against them, eight had better results in high leverage situations and five had worse results. Here they are, ordered by the difference in the OPS that hitters put up against them overall and in high leverage situations:
Player |
OPS against season |
Not High Leverage |
High Leverage |
Difference |
Gordon |
.783 |
.989 |
.632 |
.357 |
Lidge |
.565 |
.679 |
.437 |
.242 |
Seanez |
.682 |
.718 |
.497 |
.220 |
Romero |
.647 |
.729 |
.538 |
.190 |
Madson |
.675 |
.689 |
.638 |
.052 |
Blanton |
.747 |
.754 |
.715 |
.038 |
Myers |
.791 |
.795 |
.767 |
.028 |
Moyer |
.731 |
.733 |
.719 |
.014 |
Hamels |
.657 |
.649 |
.710 |
-.061 |
Kendrick |
.855 |
.840 |
.951 |
-.110 |
Durbin |
.675 |
.631 |
.761 |
-.131 |
Eaton |
.868 |
.838 |
1.046 |
-.207 |
Condrey |
.792 |
.769 |
1.052 |
-.283 |
Those numbers are based on the results against a very small number of batters. Still, the list is divided almost evenly among starters and relievers (six starters and seven relievers) and yet the five guys of the 13 whose OPS against improved the most in high leverage situations were all relievers. That may reflect that since relievers tend to face a higher percentage of batters in high leverage situations, it may be difficult to survive as a reliever without being effective when they occur.
Here are the Phillies 2008 pitching splits in high leverage situations.
This says Kevin Millar is close to signing with Toronto.
This says that Moises Alou is not healthy, doesn’t want to be a backup player, would prefer to be in the AL and hasn’t decided if he will play this year. I don’t want to imply some kind of Jedi Mind trick knowledge of the situation that does not exist, but my guess is his signing with the Phillies isn’t imminent.
Topics: pitching |
February 6th, 2009 at 11:34 am
It would seem like the Phillies don’t fit too many of Alou’s desires.
On the subject of leverage and pitchers, it just goes to show that Charlie really felt comfortable with Gordon on the mound when the times were tough. He is going to be harder to replace in the bullpen then I initially thought.
February 6th, 2009 at 11:51 am
On Gordon it may be that he created a lot of big situations for himself. The .989 OPS in non high-leverage situations is just miserable. The worst of the group by a lot. Compared to the other five relievers at the top of the list, his results in high leverage situations aren’t that much better (in fact they’re worse than for everyone but Madson). He was just a lot worse in situations that weren’t high leverage and it created a huge difference.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I didn’t read the link to Alou, but trust your summary that he is not comming here, no worries.
Great post…interesting stuff.
I was once in David Ortiz’s home and he had a plaque presented to him from the Boston Red Sox as the “Best Clutch Hitter in Red Sox History” thats pretty cool considering some of the past Red Sox players (was there for work doing a phootshoot, although I wish I could say I was there just hanging out playing X Box)
Gordon…he had an interesting year huh…bad in the very begginning…settled in…then more rollercoaster, then the injury. Either way I like the guy…has heart.
February 6th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
So if there’s no such thing as clutch-hitting and David Ortiz is the “Best Clutch Hitter in Red Sox History,” does that mean that David Ortiz does not exist? If he doesn’t exist, what is he? A unicorn, maybe?
February 6th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
That is corect…he is a unicorn.
That makes me think to check the interleague play schedule…don’t remember who it is. That unicorn can hit!
February 6th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Well that solves that. I think the Phils play Boston, Toronto and Baltimore at home this year and at the Yankees, Rays and Toronto. So no Burrell at Citizens Bank Park, but at least we’ll see him in Tampa Bay.
February 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Yea, I was thinking about Pat the Bat too…too bad not in CBP, oh well.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Planning on heading to Toronto and New York to see the Phils play Interleague this year (as well as DC). Probably won’t get to Philly though. How ironic.
Anyway, on the unicorn, I just believe that clutch hitting is something made up by the writers who need something to write about. Sort of like Jim Rice was the most feared hitter of his era. It’s just not the case. The “clutch hitting” situations are just such a small sample size. Given enough plate appearances, the stats will be the same in clutch situations as non-clutch. At least, that’s my theory.
Good point on Gordon. I wasn’t looking at all of the numbers on the screen. I still think they will miss his presence in the pen.