This chart from last night’s game shows Greg Maddux fastballs to left handed batters that were taken for a strike or a ball. Circles are called strikes, red triangles are balls. The green squares represent the average strike zone of all Giants batters, as calculated by MLB Gameday.
The most striking thing about this chart is how many called strikes were actually outside the zone. Could be the tremendous movement he had last night, could be the respect that comes from winning 330+ big league games or it could be a combination of both but Maddux definitely took advantage of it.
You don’t need a chart to tell you that a smart pitcher isn’t going to come inside with an 85 mph fastball, no matter how much movement it has. The hitters had to have been looking fastball away the whole night but they still couldn’t touch it.
The most impressive Maddux stat of the night: He retired Barry Bonds 3 times on 4 pitches.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Ducksnorts » Friday Links (13 Apr 07) // Apr 13, 2007 at 7:47 am
[…] Maddux gets the calls (Friar Watch). Long-time reader Anthony has started a blog dedicated to “keeping an eye on the San Diego Padres pitchers.” He’s doing some fascinating stuff with MLB Gameday data, including a look at whether Maddux may have received help from the men in blue during Wednesday night’s victory. Solid effort; I’m looking forward to more of these throughout the season. […]
2 Daniel // Apr 13, 2007 at 8:47 am
Great to see another regularly updated Padres blog, unique and interesting content too, keep it up. Like the format of the game notes too, it might be quite a bit more work, but it would be nice to see the same notes on the hitters that you have on the pitchers.
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