Comments on: Big Baby Blanton: Eats Innings, Craps Ks

By: The A Team

The A Team — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:10:27 +0000

Maybe I’ll ask him about that tomorrow (or read through the comments and hope someone else did). The BP account I use is an old boss’s and he doesn’t like me commenting because it’s a corporate account with the company as the user name.

By: TheRuckus

TheRuckus — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:07:52 +0000

Fangraphs has Blanton’s slider frequency at the following:

2008 w/ OAK: 11.2%
2008 w/ PHI: 21.9%
2009: 16.9%

Seidman must be getting his figures elsewhere.

It is true that Blanton’s throwing his curveball less, but last year it was in lieu of sliders and changes; his fastball % was identical to ’08.

By: The A Team

The A Team — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:55:09 +0000

Here’s an additional little tidbit on Blanton courtesy Eric Seidman:

“So what changed, aside from switching leagues? Something in his repertoire had to undergo a makeover, right? Looking at the PITCHf/x data, Blanton threw sliders just 6.7 percent of the time while on the Athletics in 2008, a frequency that skyrocketed to 19.8 percent while on the Phillies in the same year, and increased slightly further still to 20.1 percent last season; a decrease in curveballs and heaters made up for the difference.”