Webb’s Efficient Start
Brandon Webb pitched well yesterday, tossing 7 innings of one-run ball while striking out 9 and walking 3. What caught my eye, however, was the number of pitches he threw — only 89. For a start that included 9 strikeouts and 3 walks, that seems really low. In fact, it was the fewest pitches thrown in a game with those minimums this season:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR **Pit** Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+-------+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 Scott Kazmir 2007-09-21 TBD BOS L 1-8 GS-5 ,L 5 4 3 2 4 9 0 91 54 54 25 18 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 3.60 2 Brett Tomko 2007-04-10 LAD COL W 2-1 GS-6 6 1 0 0 3 9 0 92 58 76 22 18 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.00 3 Jon Lester 2007-09-26 BOS OAK W 11-6 GS-5 4.1 7 5 4 3 9 2 94 58 37 23 19 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 8.31 4 Erik Bedard 2007-05-09 BAL TBD W 1-0 GS-7 7 3 0 0 3 10 0 97 62 78 27 24 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 5 Johan Santana 2007-04-08 MIN @CHW W 3-1 GS-7 ,W 7 1 0 0 3 9 0 97 63 81 25 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 6 Erik Bedard 2007-05-20 BAL @WSN L 3-4 GS-7 7 3 1 1 3 12 0 98 66 76 28 24 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1.29 7 Oliver Perez 2007-05-02 NYM FLA W 6-3 GS-6 ,W 5.2 3 3 1 3 10 0 98 58 62 25 22 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.59
Going back to 1999 (when pitch totals become available), only four games tie or break the 89-pitch mark. Scott Kazmir’s name pops up twice more in addition to his 2007 game 91-pitch game:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR **Pit** Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+-------+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 Jake Peavy 2003-04-25 SDP @CIN W 7-3 GS-7 ,W 6.1 3 2 2 3 9 1 82 50 65 23 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2.84 2 Kerry Wood 2003-07-30 CHC SFG L 3-6 GS-6 ,L 6 3 4 4 4 9 1 88 57 55 24 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6.00 3 Scott Kazmir 2006-08-17 TBD TOR L 2-6 GS-5 5 2 0 0 3 10 0 89 56 70 20 17 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 4 Scott Kazmir 2004-09-14 TBD @BOS W 5-2 GS-6 ,W 6 3 0 0 3 9 0 89 52 72 21 18 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0.00
When you consider that Webb faced 30 batters and the other starters to make the list faced between 20 and 24, well, that’s just crazy. Think about it this way — if Webb threw zero balls to the hitters he struck out and zero strikes to hitters he walked, that only leaves 50 pitches for the other 18 batters — about 2.78 each. It’s impressive that the Cubs were so hacktastic and still managed to walk three times. Well done, Mr. Webb.
And if anyone has some insight into Scott Kazmir’s crazy pitching profile, let me know.
[...] have a new post over at Baseball-Reference.com’s Stat of the Day blog taking a look at how unique Brandon [...]
Pingback by skyking162 » Blog Archive » SOTD - Webb’s Efficient Start — October 4, 2007 @ 9:54 am
A couple of interesting numbers from the 2007 regular season:
Most Avg Pitches/PA on Walks (non-intentional, min 40 walks): Jon Garland (CHW) 6.19 ; Micah Owings (ARZ) 6.08
Fewest Avg Pitches/PA on Walks (non-intentional, min 40 walks): Kameron Low (TEX) 4.84 ; Tim Wakefield (BOS) 4.92
Most Avg Pitches/PA on Strikeouts (min 90 K): Kip Wells (STL) 5.11 ; Orlando Hernandez (NYM) 5.05
Fewest Avg Pitches/PA on Strikeouts (min 90 K): Tim Wakefield (BOS) 4.37 ; Carlos Marmol (CHC) 4.39
Most Avg Pitches/PA on Balls In Play (includes HR, min 250 BIP): Zack Grienke (KC) 3.66 ; Tom Glavine (NYM) 3.59
Fewest Avg Pitches/PA on Balls In Play (includes HR, min 250 BIP): Greg Maddux (SDP) 2.89 ; Cla Meredith (SDP) 2.91
Scott Kazmir: Walks - 5.38 ; So - 4.77 ; BIP - 3.44
Brandon Webb: Walks - 5.39 ; So - 4.49 ; BIP - 2.97
I guess what one could take from this is that an average pitch count for Webb this season if he faced 30 batters (9 K, 3 BB, and 18 BIP), would be about 111.
Comment by MiseryLovesCompany — October 4, 2007 @ 11:22 am
Where did you get that very cool data, MiseryLovesCompany?
Comment by Andy — October 4, 2007 @ 11:33 am
I think anyone under 7 innings should be taken out. Pitching 4.1 inning and throwing 94 pitches no matter how many K’s is not a good thing
Comment by mikearmalis — October 4, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
Misery, interesting stuff. Somewhere in there is a potential analysis of which pitchers are better/worse at walking batters compared to their overall ball-rate. (Same for strikeouts/strikes.) Are you counting HRs as BIPs?
Mike, to really judge the games we’d want to know about HRs. If a pitcher goes 4.1 innings with 9 Ks, 3BBs, and 0 HRs, he was probably the victim of poor fielding and/or seeing-eye hits. If he goes 4.1 innings with 3 HRs, then yeah, that’s a bad start.
Comment by Sky — October 4, 2007 @ 6:46 pm