Cano Versus Halladay

One potential match-up to watch this evening pits Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees versus Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies.  In the PITCHf/x era, 2008-2011, Cano posted a slash line of .303/.346/.494, good for a weighted on-base average (wOBA) of .361.  Cano collects hits through a wide swath of the strike zone.

Robinson Cano, hits, 2008-2011.Cano doesn't hit location as much as he hits movement, or lack thereof:

Robinson Cano, movement on hits, 2008-2011.Balls that pass near the intersection of the major axes indicate that the ball traveled as expected; there was no extra spin to deflect the ball left, right, up or down.

Halladay held Robinson to a .158/.179/.184 slash line and a .166 wOBA in 39 PA during this period.  Roy tends to work him inside:

Robinson Cano vs. Roy Halladay, pitch frequency, 2008-2011.Roy does a decent job of avoiding the middle of the plate.  Most of his pitches are inside or outside, and as we see from above, Cano does not get hits on inside pitches.  Where Halladay really beats, however, is on movement.

Robinson Cano vs. Roy Halladay, pitch movement, 2008-2011.Very few of Roy's pitches come in straight. Almost all of them dip, move in on Cano, or both.  Halladay's mastery of movement and location make Cano and easy target for outs.

Chasing a Halladay Changeup

Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies starts Tuesday's All-Star game for the National League.  There is no pitcher in 2011 better at getting batters to swing out of the zone at a change up:

Pitcher	Team	Change Ups	Chas%
Roy Halladay	PHI	339	0.573
Felix Hernandez	SEA	482	0.486
Carl Pavano	MIN	370	0.481
James Shields	TB	572	0.479
Kyle Lohse	STL	337	0.468
Chris Capuano	NYM	451	0.459
Anibal Sanchez	FLA	335	0.452
Justin Verlander	DET	415	0.447
Ricky Romero	TOR	370	0.444
Dillon Gee	NYM	384	0.441
Shaun Marcum	MIL	582	0.435
Cole Hamels	PHI	430	0.434
Roy Oswalt	PHI	229	0.429
Max Scherzer	DET	381	0.426
Bronson Arroyo	CIN	228	0.416

Roy puts a large gap between himself and #2 Felix Hernandez.  Halladay achieves this by getting more sink on his change up than most right-handed pitchers:

RHP change up movement, 2011.Roy Halladay, change up movement, 2011.With the extra drop, batters go fishing down:

Roy Halladay, swing rate on change up, 2011.Even if batters make contact with these pitches, they're so low they'll probably wind up with a ground ball.  Keep your eye on Roy's change up Tuesday night, and see how many AL batters chase it.

Who is getting Squeezed?

Time to check in on which pitchers aren't getting the close calls from umpires:

(ClStk%=called strikes/pitches taken; Data based on PitchFX strike zone.)C.J. Wilson (TEX) ranks number one in terms of the most pitches called balls in the strike zone with 124.  But this is due to volume; Wilson has thrown the second most pitches within the strike zone in the majors this season behind only Cliff Lee (PHI). 

Doug Fister (SEA) and Cliff Lee rank second and third in most missed strikes with 114 and 108 respectively.  Chad Billingsley (LAD) comes in 4th with 107 missed strikes - combine that with his overall 17th ranking in lowest called strike percentage in the zone, and he's a good candidate for the most squeezed pitcher in baseball this season.