Jason Kubel's Improvement

Jason Kubel (MIN) collected two more hits Sunday afternoon to raise his batting average to .347 after hitting .249 in 2010, an off year for him.  In 2010 pitchers tried to work him away and down as much as possible:

Jason Kubel pitch frequency, 2010.That was the right thing to do, as Jason hit for a high average on pitches in the middle of the plate:

Jason Kubel, in play average, 2010.So far in 2011, pitchers are working to Jason's strength:

Jason Kubel pitch frequency, 2011.With all those pitches in his wheel house, Jason keeps collecting hits.

Jason Kubel, in play average, 2011.Jason is pretty locked in as even when pitchers go down and away, he's making solid contact.  With Joe Mauer (MIN) and Justin Morneau (MIN) off to slow starts due to injury, Kubel picked a perfect time to lead the team in offense.

Well Played, Mauer

Very few major league catchers have been more selective at the plate over the last three years than Minnesota's Joe Mauer.  His swing rate of 36.6% ranks him in the bottom 4% of all catchers since 2008, and his 88.5% contact rate puts him in the top 5% of catchers over that span. 

(Click to enlarge)

Mauer's fantastic batter's eye has resulted in an exceedingly high three-year OBP of .420, highest among all catchers with a minimum of 500 plate appearances, and third among all position players behind Albert Pujols and Manny Ramirez.  Mauer avoids swinging at balls down in the zone which is one of the reasons he's managed to mantain a high OBP.  No player has a higher on base percentage on balls hitting the lower quarter of the plate, and only Bobby Abreu has a lower swing rate on low pitches since 2008.

Blackburn's Issues vs. RHP

Over the weekend, John Shipley wrote about Nick Blackburn’s arm issues last season.  He noted that things fell apart for Backburn in June, and elbow issues may have had something to do with it.

The one glaring difference between his numbers before and after June of last year was his performance against right-handed batters.

Nick Blackburn vs. RHB

	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
4/1/2009 - 5/31/2010	.286	.317	.419	.326
6/1/2010 - 10/3/2010	.323	.354	.497	.371

I checked his PitchFX data and there was very little difference at all in movement on his off-speed pitches over that time period.   However, Shipley does note that Blackburn’s elbow became more of a problem as the 2010 season progressed, and as a result he had to abandon his secondary pitches.  While the numbers on his fastball weren’t much different from June on (his wOBA increased only 18 points), Blackburn’s increased reliance on the pitch hurt him the most against RHB, where his fastball wOBA jumped 59 points. 

If his arm is in good shape and he can lean on those secondary pitches once again, look for Blackburn to pick up where he left off in May of last year.