Carl Pavano allowed 262 hits this year – which is
the 169th time someone has allowed 262 hits or more since 1961. None
too impressive, right? Yet it is just the fifth time since 2000 that someone
has allowed 262 hits or more – mostly because of the inning allotment necessary
in addition to the patience required by the front office to allow that sort of
punishment to continue. The others on that list are Sidney Ponson (265 , 2004),
David Wells (266, 2000), Livan Hernandez – twice (266, 2001, 268, 2005) and
Tanyon Sturtze (271, 2002). Excellent company.
Speaking of
Pavano, his fastball was the second-worst in baseball last year. According to
Fangraphs.com’s pitch value statistic, his fastball was 24.5 runs below average
(or approximately two and a half losses). Interestingly, his regularly battery
mate, Drew Butera, also proved to be quite inept when it comes to fastballs. He
found himself at 23.9 runs below average when hitting against fastballs (or
approximately two and a half losses). This was the worst mark in the American
League.
Pavano’s 42%
chase rate on his offspeed pitches was the best in the American League and
second in baseball behind some guy named Roy Halladay (45%).
Ben Revere led all of baseball in grounders with
a 68.5 percent ground ball rate. This has been the highest rate of bouncers hit
(outside of Roadhouse of course) in Fangraphs.com’s batted ball warehouse. Fangraphs.com’s data starts in 2002.
Likewise, Revere also holds the lead for fewest fly balls hit (11.6%) as well.
What’s more
is that his strength was not pulling the ball this season: Revere’s .389 OPS on
balls that he pulled is the lowest in baseball. Part of the reason for this is
because he was terrible at making solid contact when being pitched inside.
According to Inside
Edge, Revere’s well-hit average on pitches inside was .036 – the
fourth-worst in baseball.
Revere put
60% of the fastballs thrown to him in to play – the second-highest rate in
baseball behind San Francisco’s Jeff Keppinger (61%).
Alexi Casilla (6.8%) saw fewer sliders than anyone
else in baseball with a minimum of 250 plate appearances.
Michael Cuddyer’s .993 OPS versus left-handed pitching
was the sixth-best in baseball.
Don’t throw
Cuddyer a change-up (like many left-handed pitchers did), he crushed them to
the tune of 9 runs above average (roughly one win). Overall, his .341 batting
average on offspeed pitches was the fifth-best in baseball.
Nobody
squared up on right-handed pitching like Joe
Mauer did. His 27.7% line drive rate against righties led the majors. On
the other hand, his backstop mate, Drew Butera, held baseball’s lowest OPS
against righties at .403.
If you threw
anything to Mauer over the midsection of the plate (horizontal), the chances
are that it was thwacked pretty hard. The often-injured catcher/DH/first
baseman/right fielder held a .273 well-hit average on pitches in the zone. The
next closes was Boston’s David Ortiz at .217.
Drew Butera’s .449 OPS narrowly missed being the
worst in Twins history thanks to a 4-for-8 outburst in the final week of the
season. The honors for worst offensive season with a minimum of 250 plate
appearances still belongs to Jerry Zimmerman and his .436 OPS in 267 plate
appearances. For what it’s worth, Butera joins the blessed Twins hall of
sub-.500 OPS members including Houston Jimenez (1984), Danny Thompson (1970),
Ron Clark (1968), Al Newman (1991) and, of course, Zimmerman (1967).
The Twins had
two of the three worst hitters for pitches down in the zone. Butera led all players
with a .032 well-hit average while Tsuyoshi
Nishioka was the third-worst at .040.
Butera’s .142
batting average on fastballs was the worst in baseball.
Battle of the
soon-to-be free agents: Jason Kubel
had the fifth-highest batting average on line drives in play (.817) while
Cuddyer had the eleven-lowest batting average on line drives in play (.603).
One thing this could tell potential suitors is that Kubel’s 2011 season was on
the lucky side while Cuddyer was not nearly as charmed.
Denard Span and Jim Thome both chased after just 10% of non-competitive pitches
(those well out of the strike zone) – tied for third-best in baseball.
Francisco Liriano’s ability to get strike one was
horrendous this year. His 49.4% first-pitch strike rate was the sixth-worst in
a season since 2002. He also threw his fastball for a strike just 53% of the
time – the worst among starters.
Nearly 30% of
the batters Liriano faced went to three ball counts (27% vs 20% league average).
That was the highest mark among qualified starters.
When Liriano
does hit the strike zone, he’s clearly hard to hit. Liriano’s 21%
swinging-and-miss percentage on strikes was the second-highest in baseball
trailing only Atlanta’s Brandon Beachy in that department.
Just 16% of
runners Scott Baker put on base
scored. That was the third lowest rate among starters.
Kevin Slowey lost 8 starts in a row. The most recent
time that happened was by Boof Bonser in 2007. Oddly enough, in their
respective losing streaks, they both worked 44.2 innings, allowed 59 hits each
and had 36 runs scored on them.
