Bill Chuck’s Friday Nine to Know

1. From the day of Andy Pettitte’s first start May 13^th (a loss) through his last game (a win) on June 27, the Yanks went 27-14 (.659) tied with the Angels for the best record in baseball. Since that date, the Yanks have played .515 (35-33) ball.
2. The last time the Red Sox did not have a 15-game winner was 2001, the streak will end this season.
3. The last time the Red Sox did not have a hundred RBI batter was 1997, the streak will end this season.
4. Mike Leake leads all pitchers this season with two homers, but Yovani Gallardo has one this season, giving him 10 in his career tying him with Livan Hernandez among active pitchers and trailing only Carlos Zambrano who has 24.
5. While Albert Pujols is ending up with a strong season, he is not stopping an alarming trend: Pujols hit .357 in 2008, .327 in 2009, .312 in 2010, .299 last season, and .286 this season.
6. Aroldis Chapman leads all full-time relievers with 119 strikeouts in just 67.2 innings. Dick Radatz who had 181 whiffs in 157 relief innings for the Red Sox in 1964 holds the record.
7. So far Mike Trout, Alex Rios, B.J. Upton, and Ryan Braun are the only members of the 20 homer/20 steal club this season, the most in any season were the 19 in 1999. There were 12 last season.
8. Max Scherzer is the first starter (with a least 162 IP) to average over 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched since Kerry Wood in 2003 when he averaged 11.35. Scherzer is at 11.21.
9. Dickie Dietz is the only Giants catcher since the team moved to SF to have over 100 RBI (he had 107 in 1970); Buster Posey had 89.

Trout Killing Pitchers Softly

When the Angels initially called up Mike Trout last July, the then-19-year-old scuffled against major league heat. Trout batted just .149 against fastballs and slugged .298 in 2011. Those fastball woes seemingly promoted pitchers to challenge Trout with lots of fastballs this season when L.A. called him up from the minors in late April. No batter saw more fastballs than Trout (64 percent) during the month of May.

Trout has proved much more adept against the heat the second time around, batting .317 and slugging .489 against fastballs in 2012. That has led pitchers to change their approach, feeding Trout fastballs just 48 percent of the time in June and so far in July. Unfortunately for them, he's proving to be even more deadly against breaking and off-speed pitches. Check out Trout's slugging percentage against "soft" stuff -- curves, sliders and changeups -- compared to the league average:

Trout's slugging percentage by pitch location vs. curveballs, sliders and changeups

 Average slugging percentage by pitch location vs. curveballs, sliders and changeups in 2012

Trout has been the game's greatest slugger against breaking and off-speed pitches this season:

Batter	Slugging Pct. vs. Soft Stuff
Mike Trout	.698
Matt Holliday	.653
Robinson Cano	.651
Josh Hamilton	.623
Mark Trumbo	.603
Ryan Braun	.594
Josh Reddick	.591
Joey Votto	.569
A. J. Pierzynski	.560
Giancarlo Stanton	.547
MLB Avg.	.376

Trout struggled with big league fastballs at first, and pitchers pounced. He adjusted to handle the heat, and opponents responded by giving him more curves, sliders and changeups. Now that Trout's killing the soft stuff, what's a pitcher to do? Develop a knuckler? Come down with food poisoning during that scheduled started against L.A.? Get traded to the Angels? Stay tuned.

Pitchers Approaching Harper, Trout Far Differently

The careers of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout will forever be linked. The game's top two prospects entering the season spur endless debate -- will Harper's pure power or Trout's five-tool game ultimately prove more valuable? So far in 2012, both are raking. Harper has a 141 OPS+ 125 plate appearances, and Trout has a 148 OPS+ in 129 plate appearances. While the 19-year-old Harper and 20-year-old Trout are each having historically great seasons for players not yet legally able to buy a brew, the way pitchers are approaching them couldn't be any more different.

With Harper having already popped four home runs and batting in the meat of the Nationals' order, pitchers are reluctant to throw him strikes. Trout, sitting atop the Angels' lineup, has seen many more strikes:

Player	Zone Pct.
Harper	43.3
Trout	51
MLB Avg.	48

As you might expect from those above numbers, Harper is getting plenty of off-speed stuff. In fact, he has seen to lowest percentage of fastballs (two-seam and four-seam) among all major league hitters with at least 100 plate appearances:

Player	Pct. Fastballs Seen
Bryce Harper	31.8%
Bryan LaHair	33.0%
Brandon Belt	33.9%
Ike Davis	35.4%
Ian Stewart	35.7%
Geovany Soto	36.1%
Cameron Maybin	37.3%
Carlos Ruiz	37.7%
Alfonso Soriano	38.2%
Pedro Alvarez	38.3%

Trout, meanwhile, has seen more fastballs than any hitter in the game with at least 100 plate appearances:

Player	Pct. Fastballs Seen
Mike Trout	62.8%
Alberto Callaspo	62.3%
Maicer Izturis	61.2%
Jemile Weeks	58.9%
Chone Figgins	58.9%
Humberto Quintero	56.9%
Juan Pierre	56.1%
Andy Dirks	55.9%
Vernon Wells	55.8%
Emilio Bonifacio	55.6%

So far, giving Harper off-speed stuff off the plate and Trout an abundance of in-zone fastballs hasn't worked for pitchers. Luckily (or should I say unfortunately?), opponents have a good 15-20 years to figure out how to return these prodigies to the dugout.