Don't Hold Back

In preparation for the upcoming baseball season and because I am finishing up a statistics course, I am going to do a series on interesting stats from the great game. These are not necessarily original statistics, but the ones that I find interesting. All stats come from last season.

Fast Ball Percentage
To what degree do pitchers feel comfortable throwing the heat? Are they pretty sure that you will chase junk in the dirt? I think answers to these questions should help a player focus on areas to improve during the offseason. The average player sees about 60% fastballs when they come to the plate.

Let's start with players around the league who should swing early and assume fastball. Pitchers think that they cannot get around on a good fastball.

Player	Team	Fastball %
Juan Pierre	Dodgers	70.1 %
Chone Figgins	Angels	69.1 %
Placido Polanco	Tigers	68.1 %
Johnny Damon	Yankees	67.8 %
Matt Holliday	Rockies	67.0 %

Two Rangers this year need to take notice:

Player	Team	Fastball %
Taylor Teagarden	Rangers	70.8 %
Frank Catalanotto	Rangers	66.6 %

As far as players who can't hold back on any pitch, the following are in the cellar. Pitchers think that they can get them to whiff on anything with movement. If this group does not stay planted on their back feet, they are toast.

Player	Team	Fastball %
Alexei Ramirez	White Sox	47.0 %
Hunter Pence	Astros	49.8 %
Dan Uggla	Marlins	50.2 %
Aubrey Huff	Orioles	51.0 %
Ryan Howard	Phillies	51.2 %
Geovany Soto	Cubs	51.2 %

The offending Rangers are:

Player	Team	Fastball %
Hank Blalock	Rangers	53.2 %
Josh Hamilton	Rangers	53.4 %
Chris Davis	Rangers	55.3 %
Nelson Cruz	Rangers	55.4 %