Darvish's Slider Makes Him Strikeout King

Legend has it that Satchel Paige was so confident in his ability to strike out batters that he would call his outfielders to the infield, inviting them to take a seat and bear witness to his greatness. You probably won't see Yu Darvish motion for Nelson Cruz any time soon, but you couldn't blame the Texas Rangers ace if he did.

Darvish has whiffed 72 hitters in 45.2 frames this season, a staggering 14.2 per nine innings pitched. His closest competitor among qualified starting pitchers is Max Scherzer, with a comparatively puny 12.4 K/9. Yu is punching out batters at a pace that even Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson couldn't manage in their primes, and he's doing it by throwing nearly twice as many sliders as he did last season.

As a rookie, Darvish threw his slider about 19% of the time. Batters swung and missed 44% of the time against the pitch, a mark bested only by Zack Greinke and Edwin Jackson among starters who threw at least 500 sliders. This year, Darvish has thrown his slider 37%. Hitters aren't catching on, though, whiffing at an even higher clip (46%).

Darvish has finished off 43 of the 72 batters he has struck out (60%) with a slider. The increase in sliders thrown is a major reason why Darvish's opponent contact rate has plummeted, particularly to the glove side: 

Darvish's contact rate by pitch location, 2012

Darvish's contact rate by pitch location, 2013

Yu has only made seven starts, but it's worth noting that no starting pitcher in history has ever punched out hitters at the clip he's currently managing over the course of a full season. Darvish's current K/9, if it were to hold up, would put Pedro and The Big Unit to shame. Kinda makes you wonder if the Rangers need outfielders on the day Darvish pitches.

Highest single-season K/9 for qualified starters

 Source: Baseball-Reference.com

Which teams hit well against righties/lefties? Which don't?

There were two variables I was looking for in putting this chart together:

1 - Hitting success

2 - Hitting balance

The answer appears quickly in this chart in the upper right quadrant:

1 - The Rockies are hitting .286 against righties and .285 against lefties.

2 - The Tigers are hitting .286 against righties and .283 against lefties.

• The Braves have better balance than productivity hitting .244 against righties and .248 against lefties.
• The Mariners hitting is also mediocre and balanced hitting .242 against righties and .238 against lefties.
• But the Cubs, whose hitting is borderline miserable has the second closest balance hitting .238 against righties and .239 against lefties.
• It's the Mets, with their miserable hitting that is the most balanced hitting .2434 against righties and .234 against lefties.

Best and worst?

• The Dodgers are eating up lefties hitting .305 but struggling against righties hitting .232.
• The White Sox are the worst hitting team against righties struggling at .224.

There are five teams hitting under .220 against lefties

• Marlins - .219
• Pirates - .219
• Diamondbacks - .219
• Phillies - .207
• And the most amazing stat is that the Washington Nationals are hitting .203 against lefties (and only .240 against righties).

The Buchholz enigma - Strikeouts: Looking vs. Swinging and Missing

As I was reading David Golebiewski's dive into the Clay Buchholz controversy, it got me wondering about strikeouts - what does a swinging strikeout tell us versus a looking at a called third strike strikeout?

A pair of positives come to mind: 

• A pitcher who is getting swings and misses obviously has nasty stuff that is often in the strike zone, but too difficult to hit.
• A pitcher who is getting batters to take a third strike is obviously throwing a good mix of stuff, changing locations and speed, and working the black. 

And a pair of negatives come to mind: 

• A pitcher who is getting misses is inducing swings and anytime a swing happens, well as the expression goes "other things" can happen as well.
• A pitcher who is getting batters to take pitches, you are umpire dependent and control dependent, meaning if the control is off, as the expression goes other things can happen as well. 

2012 AL Starters (minimum 30 starts)

As I looked at the AL strikeout elite last season, I found that the top pitchers had significantly more whiffs swinging than looking. 

• Max Scherzer had 149 more swing and misses than looks.
• Justin Verlander had 123 more swing and misses.
• King Felix Hernandez had 126 more swing and misses. 

It's interesting to note that two Rays pitchers had the most called third strikes and among the smallest differentials: Cy Young Award winner David Price had just 37 and Jamies Shields, now of the Royals, had 95.

Among pitchers with with at least 100 swings and miss whiffs, Ricky Romero had the fewest call third strikes with just 18. Based on his lack of success it obvious that batters wanted to swing at Romero's pitches.

Take a look at the the 2012 totals

2013 AL Starters (minimum 5 starts entering action on May 5)

• Yu Darvish is dazzling batters who are unable to make contact with his pitches.
• Scherzer and Felix are dominating once again.
• Anibal Sanchez as we all know has been dominant.
• Maybe under appreciated are Ryan Dempster and Hisashi Iwakuma.
• David Price is doing what he did last season in strikeouts but is his minimal differential a reflection of his 6.25 ERA?

The Buchholz enigma

That brings us to the case of Clay Buchholz, who is way down on the swing and miss list, but through the roof on called third strikes.

• Conspiracists in the Jack Morris camp would say, Buchholz' pitches are moving funny and are not being read well by batters.
• Red Sox Nation would say, Buchholz' mix of pitches and sharp control are simply freezing batters as he replicates the success of Price last season.

After all is said and done, the numbers indicate the efficacy of pitchers getting batters to swing and miss versus take a called third strike. But you can't argue with success of the outliers: Price and Buchholz.

Time will tell, but I look forward to hearing what you think of the Buchholz enigma.