Before the season had started, Eno Sarris of FanGraphs mentioned in a discussion with fellow analyst Jason Collette th at improved catcher performance may help Worley return to baseball relevance in 2014. I decided to do a little research to see if his theory was supported with data.
Below is a table of the pitche rs with highest percentage of pitches that resulted in called strikes from 2010-2013.
For a pitch to result in a called strike, the majority of the responsibility falls on the pitcher, but responsibility also falls on the catcher, as he can “frame” pitches to make borderline pitches or pitches just outside the strike zone be called a strike. (Bhere.) Worley ranked sixth on the list, as roughly one in five of his pitches was a called strike. While in Philadelphia, Worley was throwing to catcher Carlos Ruiz most of the time. In 2011, Ruiz was an average pitch framer, according to StatCorner’s Catcher Report. Ruiz had an oStr% of 7.0% which was close to average. “oStr%” is the percentage of pitches that are outside the strike zone, but are still called strikes - this comes from pitch framing, as mentioned above. Worley was successful in 2011, and some of his success may be attributed to Ruiz’s pitch framing. In 2013, with the Twins, Worley was throwing to Ryan Doumit, who was second to last in oStr%, with only 4.7%, and cost his pitchers roughly three strikes per game. Worley performed very poorly in 2013, and Doumit’s poor pitch framing may have been part of the issue. In 2014, Worley will be pitching to Russell Martin with the Pirates, who was one of the league’s best in oStr% in 2013. Martin’s elite pitch framing may allow Worley to grab a few more strikes, possibly returning him to Major League relevance.
Clearly, there are other factors than just pitch framing that go into Worley’s success. His contact rate has been increasing, his velocity is low, and he has been drawing fewer whiffs. But, baseball is baseball, and maybe things will fall the right way for Worley in 2014.
***Post-editing addition: This rather obscure call was looking pretty good on July 11, as Worley had posted a 3.03 ERA in five starts. However, Francisco Liriano has returned from the disabled list, which bumped Worley into the bullpen for now. Hopefully he will get another shot later in the year, but he’ll have to wait.
Statistics are from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Baseball Savant, and StatCorner.
©2014.KevinAntonevich.AllRightsReserved.
en Lindbergh of Grantland wrote a great piece on framing, which can be found Clearly, there are other factors than just pitch framing that go into Worley’s success. His contact rate has been increasing, his velocity is low, and he has been drawing fewer whiffs. But, baseball is baseball, and maybe things will fall the right way for Worley in 2014.
***Post-editing addition: This rather obscure call was looking pretty good on July 11, as Worley had posted a 3.03 ERA in five starts. However, Francisco Liriano has returned from the disabled list, which bumped Worley into the bullpen for now. Hopefully he will get another shot later in the year, but he’ll have to wait.
Statistics are from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Baseball Savant, and StatCorner.
©2014.KevinAntonevich.AllRightsReserved.