Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies Rocket Launcher

Fly balls are a mixed bag for batters.  A high fly gives an outfielder plenty of time to get under the ball and record the out.  On the other hand, batters that get the launch angle right see those balls come down in the seats instead.  Here are the top 25 batters at turning home runs into fly balls in 2011, minimum 75 fly balls:

Hitter	Team	Plate App.	HR/FB
Jose Bautista	TOR	83	0.313
Mark Teixeira	NYY	88	0.25
Curtis Granderson	NYY	98	0.245
Mark Reynolds	BAL	78	0.244
Matt Kemp	LAD	93	0.237
Paul Konerko	CWS	90	0.233
Ryan Howard	PHI	81	0.222
Prince Fielder	MIL	83	0.217
Jay Bruce	CIN	96	0.198
Adrian Gonzalez	BOS	86	0.198
Danny Espinosa	WSH	76	0.197
David Ortiz	BOS	88	0.193
Troy Tulowitzki	COL	83	0.193
Kelly Johnson	ARI	81	0.185
Alfonso Soriano	CHC	82	0.171
Brian McCann	ATL	85	0.165
Carlos Quentin	CWS	87	0.161
Chris Young	ARI	96	0.156
Alex Rodriguez	NYY	77	0.156
Kevin Youkilis	BOS	79	0.152
Albert Pujols	STL	87	0.149
Andrew McCutchen	PIT	88	0.148
Adrian Beltre	TEX	109	0.147
Mitch Moreland	TEX	75	0.147

Notice that the list is littered with all-stars and all-star snubs.  About in the middle, ranked 13th, is Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies.  While he's joined by middle infielders Danny Espinosa of the Washington Nationals and Kelly Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, long term Troy dominates the shortstop position.

HR/FB, 2008-2011, shortstops. Minimum 250 fly balls

Shortstop	Team	Plate App.	HR/FB
Troy Tulowitzki	COL	422	0.190
Hanley Ramirez	FLA	413	0.157
Alexei Ramirez	CWS	434	0.129
J. J. Hardy	BAL	377	0.125
Jhonny Peralta	DET	510	0.110
Alex Gonzalez	ATL	366	0.098
Derek Jeter	NYY	358	0.095
Stephen Drew	ARI	560	0.089
Miguel Tejada	SF	484	0.089
Yunel Escobar	TOR	395	0.084
Jerry Hairston	WSH	296	0.084
Jimmy Rollins	PHI	484	0.083
Ronny Cedeno	PIT	250	0.080
Asdrubal Cabrera	CLE	368	0.073
Jose Reyes	NYM	397	0.071
Yuniesky Betancourt	MIL	506	0.063
Marco Scutaro	BOS	525	0.059
Jed Lowrie	BOS	250	0.056
Edgar Renteria	CIN	294	0.054
Jason Bartlett	SD	382	0.045
Erick Aybar	LAA	375	0.045
Cliff Pennington	OAK	265	0.042
Jamey Carroll	LAD	252	0.012
Cesar Izturis	BAL	267	0.011

The average among this group is just 0.085 HR/FB.  Troy more than doubles that, giving the Rockies a great offensive weapon at a position known for defense.  In case you want to blame Coors Field for his high rate, over the same period his rage on the road is 0.180, still the best in the majors among shortstops.  His power is for real.

How Not to Pitch Troy Tulowitzki

Troy Tulowitzki hit two home runs Thursday afternoon, bringing his season total to seven.  That number puts him halfway to the April record halfway through the month.  In addition, ten of his sixteen hits went for extra bases.

While Troy slugs well for any position on the field, his start would put him among the great sluggers of all time over a full season.  Why the sudden power surge?

During the pevious three season, Troy tended to show the most power on pitches up in the strike zone:

Troy Tulowitzki, in play slugging, 2008-2010Not surprisingly, pitchers tended to work him down and away:

Troy Tulowitzki, pitch frequency, 2008-2010.On the slugging map, a donut hole exists down and in, a blue spot near the lower corner near Troy's knees.  In fact, that hole is the lowest slugging area within the strike zone.  So far in 2011, pitchers decided that would be a good place to throw the ball:

Troy Tulowitzki, pitch frequency, 2011.The pitchers tried to take advantage of a weak spot, but the strategy didn't work:

Troy Tulowitzki, in play slugging, 2011.Troy hammered the pitch down and in.  Both home runs Thursday were on the inside edge of the plate as well.  It turns out the right strategy for pitching to Troy was the old one, work him away. 

HR Recap: Troy Tulowitzki vs. Paul Maholm (4/7/11)

Troy Tulowitzki hit a 4th inning home run of Paul Maholm yesterday in Pittsburgh.  It was actually a decent sequence of pitches from Maholm, but an even better job of hitting by Tulowitzki.

Troy Tulowitzki vs. LHP (2008 through April 6, 2011) (Click to enlarge) Tulowitzki vs. Maholm (4th inning, 4/7/2011) (Click to enlarge)

Maholm started him out with two fastballs inside.  He then threw him a curve and a slider low, followed by fastball up.  On a full count, Troy took Maholm's 89 MPH inside fastball out of the park.  You can see that Maholm was trying to pitch to Tulowitzki's weak power zones.  But Troy was able to turn on it and deposit the pitch 390 feet away into the left field seats at PNC Park.