Making some comparisons

It’s always fun to look at how some things stack up side by side, or how results and process compare. So today, I’m going to take a few things about the Yankees–and their individual players–and compare them to things like perception or past results. Let’s start off on the team level. (Disclaimer: All statistics accurate through pre-game, 5/17)

We all know the Yankees tend to pound low-to-medium-velocity pitchers who throw strikes (lol Twins). So I decided to compare their pitcher type data from Baseball Reference to their pitch values from FanGraphs. As you can see from the link, the Yankees OPS .825 against finesse pitchers, .779 against neutral pitchers, and .744 against power pitchers. When we think finesse pitcher, we tend to think a lot of junk and as we’ve seen–and as the numbers support–the Yankees don’t always fare too well against junk (-0.62 runs per 100 curveballs, -1.24 runs per 100 changeups). So why the disconnect? I’m assuming it’s because those finesse guys they face have very hittable fastballs.

Next, we’ll go to everyone’s favorite player right now: Curtis Granderson.

2010 BB%: 10.0
2011 BB%: 9.9

2010 K%: 24.9
2011 K%: 25.9

2010 BABIP: .277
2011 BABIP: .280

2010 Line Drive%: 19.9
2011 Line Drive%: 15.1

2010 Ground Ball%: 33.0
2011 Ground Ball%: 32.1

This is fishy, isn’t it? There are a good number of things for 2011 Curtis Granderson that look a lot like they did for 2010 Curtis Granderson. Let’s get to the stuff that’s been different:

2010 IsoP: .221
2011 IsoP: .364

2010 HR/FB%: 14.5
2011 HR/FB%: 25.0

2010 wOBA/wRC+: .343/113
2011 wOBA/wRC+: .427/174

2010 wOBA vs. LHP: .289
2011 wOBA vs. LHP: .443

A lot of the things we’re seeing from Granderson are pretty similar to this year, but a few more important things–namely home runs–have jumped up and led to a big spike in production. Good stuff, Curtis.

Jorge Posada has been a frequent topic of discussion in the Yankee/baseball blogosphere due to the incident involving his self-removal from Saturday night’s lineup and the fact that he’s having a pretty bad season. But, there are some things that are close to his career numbers that bode well for him.

For example, his career BB% is 13.3 and he’s at 12.7% this year. His career Iso is .203; right now, Jorge is at .183 which is well off his career mark, but is still plenty acceptable. He’s still working walks and getting extra base hits, apparently. It’s the other things that aren’t quite falling (.164 BABIP, 11.4 LD%), though he did have two nice hits last night. Hopefully, it’s the beginning of the turnaround for Posada.

Is Derek Jeter‘s 2011 starting to look a lot like Derek Jeter’s 2010? Yes, it is. Let’s look more closely. His walk rate? Down, but so is his strikeout rate. Iso? Down. BABIP? Down…so is LD%, GB/FB, and HR/FB. Infield fly ball% is also up and so is GB%. Out of zone swing%? Up, but in zone swing% is down. His swinging strike percentage, though, is steady at 6.7%, which it has been in every year since 2009. The production is also way down (.320 wOBA to .282). I said repeatedly that it would be hard for Jeter to get worse than 2010, but it looks like he’s on his way to equaling it. Please prove me wrong, Derek.

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