Patience

[Frank Sereno]

I was just looking at the stats available on ESPN.com and it just shows me
how our perceptions can distort reality. I'm sure a lot of us think that
Alfonso Soriano is a bit of a free-swinger, especially when he is chasing
balls low and outside. And I'm sure that most of us believe that Derrek Lee
is a very patient hitter. Okay, the latter observation is correct, but the
former is wrong. Lee is a patient hitter in that he sees a higher than
average number of pitches per plate appearance. He was 26th among all
qualifying NL batters for pitches per plate appearance with 3.95 pitches.
But the difference between Lee and Soriano is exactly one-tenth of a pitch,
with Fonzie coming in at #39 with an average of 3.85 pitches per plate
appearance. Facts can be strange things, can't they?

[Michael Lanasa]

In article <%VBMm.914$ge1...@unlimited.newshosting.com>,
fse...@nospam.com says...

It's an odd stat for sure. Anyone who watches Soriano can tell he's not
a patient hitter. Or is he?

The Baseball Reference page for the 2009 Cubs sheds some light on the
issue once you look at the splits for pitches. Yes, Soriano sees 3.85
pitches per plate appearance, which is right at league average; nothing
special. When you look further though, you see that his percentage of
pitches swung at is easily highest on the team and well above league
average. Also, his Swung at Strike Percentage and swinging strike
percentage are team highs and above league average. His contact
percentage is lowest on the team and well below league average.
Basically, Soriano was up there hacking at just about everything thrown,
and he was often missing.

John had part of the answer: Soriano's foul ball percentage is second on
the team to Ramirez and above league average. The fact that Soriano made
such poor contact also meant that he wasn't having too many quick at
bats, so he ended up with more strikeouts that quick 1-2 pitch outs.
Those factors contributed to Soriano's league average P/PA.

This is the page where I got the stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/2009-batting.shtml

[yumy...@sbcglobal.net]

Considering the number of times Soriano strikes out it surprising his
average
is only 3.85 pitches per PA.

Lance