Swisher Back in Pinstripes

The Yankees exercised their option on Nick Swisher yesterday, bringing the switch hitting right fielder back for another season.  Over at RLYW.net, SG did some analysis a while back focusing on whether Swisher was more susceptible to good pitching, which could possibly explain why he's come up a bit short in the playoffs in the last three years.

One thing that stood out in his PitchFX data has been the decline in his ability to hit balls on the edges of the plate.  Since his first year in pinstripes, Swisher has been producing fewer and fewer hits on pitches hitting the black.

Nick Swisher vs. Pitches on the Black

	AVG	BABIP	SLG
2009	.281	.333	.563
2010	.200	.238	.371
2011	.156	.130	.375

Now, the average number of plate appearances decided on pitches hitting the black is quite small. So these numbers are certainly vulnerable to small sample size issues. However, it is interesting that Swisher's heat maps do seem to indicate that he struggles with anything near the edges of the plate. In addition, the drastic drop in BABIP on pitches he's hit on the black suggests that, even in a small sample set, Swisher may be struggling to square up tougher pitches more and more.