Joe, Fast and Slow

Joe Blanton gets very different reactions to his fast and off-speed pitches.  This graph shows Joe's results by different speeds in 2010.

Joe Blanton pitch speed, 2010.Joe's fastball is hittable.  When batters swing, they make contact.  They don't swing at it that often, however, and when they do make contact, their BABIP tends to be lower.

Batters like to swing at the off-speed pitches, but their contact rate goes way down.  Less contact, means more swing and misses.  Blanton gets a 30.7% strikeout rate on the soft stuff, 8.5% on his fastball.  So while batters hit .345 when they put a Blanton fastball in play versus .383 on the softstuff, the higher strikeout rate means opponets hit just .261 on the off-speed pitches but .313 on the fastball.  That makes Blanton's slow stuff all or nothing pitches.