The folks over at FanGraphs have a statistic called O-Swing%, which simply measures the percentage of pitches outside the strike zone that a player chases. The league average has generally been around 25% the past few years. In 2009, the Pirates had the seventh highest percentage at 26.8%, continuing a trend of poor plate patience. They were led by notorious free-swingers Freddy Sanchez (30.1%), Lastings Milledge (30.8%), Ryan Doumit (33.2%), Jack Wilson (33.4%) and Ronny Cedeno (37.0%).
Thus far in 2010, the Pirates have been marching to a new beat. The Bucs have the fourth lowest percentage at 22.9%. Some of that improvement is due to new roster additions, such as Aki Iwamura (15.0%) and Bobby Crosby (16.7%). Moreover, some players have made dramatic improvement to their plate discipline, such as Doumit (19.5%) and Milledge (25.7%).
Obviously, we are looking at a small sample size here, and it’s not like this is the first time I have noted improved patience early in a season. So take these numbers with a large grain of salt. But at the very least, they are encouraging.
PA | O-Swing% | |
Jason Jaramillo | 8 | 0.0% |
John Raynor | 6 | 7.7% |
Akinori Iwamura | 51 | 15.0% |
Andrew McCutchen | 55 | 16.5% |
Bobby Crosby | 19 | 16.7% |
Ryan Doumit | 42 | 19.5% |
Andy LaRoche | 33 | 20.6% |
Garrett Jones | 53 | 22.3% |
Ryan Church | 18 | 23.3% |
Lastings Milledge | 51 | 25.7% |
Delwyn Young | 21 | 35.5% |
Jeff Clement | 34 | 35.7% |
Ronny Cedeno | 42 | 39.7% |