The Yankees and the Three Home Run Bears

The Yankees lead the majors in team home runs hit this season.  The types of pitches they hit for long balls can be demonstrated with three particular players and opponents pitch velocity.  First, a look at the team as a whole:

Yankees home run by release velocity and location, 2011.New York batters hit fast pitches high and low, and slower pitches in the middle.  The papa bear here is Alex Rodriguez, who likes his pitches high and fast:

Alex Rodriguez home runs by release velocity and location, 2011.Alex, one of the great sluggers of all time, can handle the high, hard stuff.  This alos gives him power to all fields, as he hit two homers to left this season, one to center and one to right.

Russell Martin comes in as mama bear, who likes his pitches soft and hanging:

Russell Martin, home runs by release velocity and location, 2011.Martin has not been much of a slugger in his career, but he's killing mistakes in the middle of the plate this season.

That leaves Mark Teixeira as baby bear, the slugger where every pitch is just right:

Mark Teixeira, home runs by release velocity, 2011.He hits them high, he hits them low, he hits them fast, he hits them slow.  New York's diverse set of sluggers gives them the ability to take any kind of pitcher deep somewhere in the lineup, and their tremendous power to start the season vaulted them to first place in the AL East.

Phil Hughes' Early Season Blues

Yes, Phil Hughes' fastball velocity is down. We get it. Is that his only problem? Probably not, but it sure makes it harder for him to be successful with his other pitches. Let's take a look at how he's locating compared to the last three seasons.

Phil Hughes Pitch Location (All Pitch Types) (Click to enlarge)

The major difference so far has been Hughes' attempt to come in on lefties. The main reason for this is that he's been relying on his cutter more over his first two starts, while shying away from his velocity-challenged fastball.

Phil Hughes Pitch Selection vs. LHB

	FB%	CHNG%	CURV%	SLD%	CUT%
2008-10	63.5%	4.4%	20.5%	1.3%	10.2%
2011	11.9%	6.0%	13.4%	0.0%	68.7%

Phil Hughes Pitch Selection vs. RHB

	FB%	CHNG%	CURV%	SLD%	CUT%
2008-10	61.5%	0.1%	17.0%	3.2%	18.1%
2011	12.9%	1.4%	20.0%	0.0%	65.7%

Having to rely more on his cutter has not produced positive results for Hughes. Batters are hitting .412 off it, compared to .290 in his three previous seasons; he's only induced a handful of swings and misses on the pitch as well. In his three previous seasons, Hughes was able to get opposing righties to chase his cutter out of the zone 38.4 percent of the time. So far this season, he's produced just 2 total swings on 21 cutters out of the zone to RHB. This could be a sign that his location is somewhat iffy. But it could also be a side effect of the ineffectiveness of his fastball. With batters seeing the cutter more, it's likely easier for them to lay off the pitch when it's thrown to the outside edge of the plate. And the reduced velocity on his fastball means batters have more time to identify the pitch, differentiating it from the cutter.

Phil Hughes vs. LHB

	P	PA	K%	BB%	Miss%	Strk%	Foul%
2008-10	2806	666	20.3%	11.4%	18.2%	62.7%	46.6%
2011	67	17	0.0%	5.9%	3.0%	70.1%	48.5%

Phil Hughes vs. RHB

	P	PA	K%	BB%	Miss%	Strk%	Foul%
2008-10	2700	676	22.0%	5.5%	21.5%	67.6%	46.2%
2011	70	16	6.3%	18.8%	6.7%	55.7%	53.3%

With only two starts under his belt, you can't really get too bent out of shape about any of these numbers, although they don't inspire much confidence going forward. His swing and miss rate is pretty awful even for the limited sample. Basically, opposing batters are making contact on 95 percent of their swings against Hughes. He's obviously not going to be racking up the Ks at that rate.

InDepth Recap: CC Sabathia's Opening Day Slider

CC Sabathia's Slider Location (Click to enlarge)

Sabathia didn't have his best slider in the Yankees' opener yesterday. His location was off as it hung up in the zone quite a bit. Over the last three seasons, batters have made contact on his slider 56.1 percent of the time. On 24 sliders yesterday afternoon, the Tigers made contact 77.8 percent, primarily on pitches in the strike zone. Obviously, it's only one game's worth of data, but it was clear he wasn't able to keep the pitch down like he normally does.

BrkX and BrkZ values provided by PitchFX measure the number of inches the ball moves horizontally and vertically as a result of the spin on the ball read from when it is 40 ft from home plate. Sabathia traditionally gets about 5.1 inches of BrkX (horizontal) movement on his slider. Yesterday it averaged 2.8 inches. From 2008-2010, PitchFX data has Sabathia throwing 2060 sliders in regular and postseason games combined. Only 450 of those sliders have had a BrkX reading less than 3.0.

One game's worth of data is not enough to draw any significant conclusions on one pitch. Besides, it was cold, and CC usually takes a few starts to get going. If he's still hanging his slider up in the zone in a couple weeks, then it might be time to worry.