8/30... phillies doubleheader

Enscheff said:
He hasn't seen 25%+ sliders for about 30 games now...pretty much ever since he was called back up.

http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.asp...=&ymax=&start=2016&end=2017&rtype=mult&gt1=15

His good stretches have almost perfectly coincided with seeing fewer sliders. It's starting to climb again, and we will see how he responds when it hits 25%+ again.
Click to expand...

Somehow I don't think MLB teams forgot dansby struggled with the slider. If he's seeing less, I would imagine it's bc he showed more success vs them. Show us his swing and miss, swing and make contact, etc vs sliders since return
 
msstate7 said:
Somehow I don't think MLB teams forgot dansby struggled with the slider. If he's seeing less, I would imagine it's bc he showed more success vs them. Show us his swing and miss, swing and make contact, etc vs sliders since return
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LOL still arguing with me. Sure thing...

He's still swinging at slider low and away out of the zone in August:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

And he's still missing those pitches:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

just like he's been missing the low and away slider all year:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

Like I said, it will be interesting to see what happens when MLB pitchers start feeding him a constant diet of sliders again.
 
msstate7 said:
Yeah, I misread that.

His contact rate is very good with sliders in the zone on the outside part of the plate though, so pitchers have to be careful going for that cold zone

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi
Click to expand...

Huh? A 50%-60% contact rate is very below average, especially for a guy without plus power. Are you trying to say Swanson learned to make contact on the slider in 3 weeks at AAA?

Compare to someone like BP who is 70%-80% everywhere but extreme corner of the zone:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

Swanson has a 200+ point OPS platoon split at the MLB level, and such large splits are almost always due to players unable to handle pitches breaking away from them.

Swanson has a slider problem, and it doesn't look to be going away. I have no idea why pitchers stopped throwing them, but when they ramp it back up to 25%+ we will see how Swanson responds. The Braves need him to respond well.
 
Enscheff said:
Huh? A 50%-60% contact rate is very below average, especially for a guy without plus power. Are you trying to say Swanson learned to make contact on the slider in 3 weeks at AAA?

Compare to someone like BP who is 70%-80% everywhere but extreme corner of the zone:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

Swanson has a 200+ point OPS platoon split at the MLB level, and such large splits are almost always due to players unable to handle pitches breaking away from them.

Swanson has a slider problem, and it doesn't look to be going away. I have no idea why pitchers stopped throwing them, but when they ramp it back up to 25%+ we will see how Swanson responds. The Braves need him to respond well.
Click to expand...

I haven't dug into the data, but I wonder if it could be how he's now finally finding himself in hitters counts all the time. It seems like he walks a couple times every game. This would explain why pitchers are throwing him more fastballs.

Obviously, this doesn't solve a real issue for him (afformentioned slider), but it could illustrate some sort of adjustment he's made to help put him in situations where he's getting ahead of the count. Though, this all likely SSS noise.
 
Enscheff said:
Huh? A 50%-60% contact rate is very below average, especially for a guy without plus power. Are you trying to say Swanson learned to make contact on the slider in 3 weeks at AAA?

Compare to someone like BP who is 70%-80% everywhere but extreme corner of the zone:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

Swanson has a 200+ point OPS platoon split at the MLB level, and such large splits are almost always due to players unable to handle pitches breaking away from them.

Swanson has a slider problem, and it doesn't look to be going away. I have no idea why pitchers stopped throwing them, but when they ramp it back up to 25%+ we will see how Swanson responds. The Braves need him to respond well.
Click to expand...

You're probably right. To tell the truth, I'm not concerned though... he's hitting the ball hard and getting on base at almost a .500 clip. It's always the next huge, insurmountable crisis at hand with you, so I'm kinda numb to it.

Swanson 3-7, 3 bb in double header
 
Enscheff said:
Huh? A 50%-60% contact rate is very below average, especially for a guy without plus power. Are you trying to say Swanson learned to make contact on the slider in 3 weeks at AAA?

Compare to someone like BP who is 70%-80% everywhere but extreme corner of the zone:

http://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.a...&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=SL&season=all&data=pi

Swanson has a 200+ point OPS platoon split at the MLB level, and such large splits are almost always due to players unable to handle pitches breaking away from them.

Swanson has a slider problem, and it doesn't look to be going away. I have no idea why pitchers stopped throwing them, but when they ramp it back up to 25%+ we will see how Swanson responds. The Braves need him to respond well.
Click to expand...

That is the big question... Why would they stop doing it if it was still working? The answer seems elusive, and may not emerge until we have a larger sample size of data.
 
mfree80 said:
That is the big question... Why would they stop doing it if it was still working? The answer seems elusive, and may not emerge until we have a larger sample size of data.
Click to expand...

My guess is a lucky string of RHers without confidence in a good slider.

But you're right, we need to wait and see because the August data is too limited to make any real conclusions...it just doesn't appear that he performed better against sliders, even with the limited data.

If pitchers simply stop throwing him sliders, for whatever reason, that is essentially as good as him learning to hit them.
 
Most pitchers can't throw three strikes before four balls if you don't help them.

I wonder what the difference is if pitchers get ahead vs Swanson, his BB%/OBP is obviously inflated due to hitting 8th but even in cases in which he's not IBB he is still getting ahead a lot more than what he was before and getting ahead means less of any off speed pitches....it's really as simple as this.

Better pitching awaits the Braves...so lets see what happens when he gets behind again. It will probably be the same thing...sadly.
 
msstate7 said:
You're probably right. To tell the truth, I'm not concerned though... he's hitting the ball hard and getting on base at almost a .500 clip. It's always the next huge, insurmountable crisis at hand with you, so I'm kinda numb to it.

Swanson 3-7, 3 bb in double header
Click to expand...

Did I describe it as a crisis, or did I say I want to see what happens when he starts seeing a lot of sliders again before I declare him "fixed"?

I'm getting numb to your strawman arguments too I suppose.
 
Game 2 Elephant
P6x0U.gif
 
Was that Teheran's best start of the season? Wasn't exactly facing the '27 Yankees, but the way the Phils have been handling us, it almost feels that way.
 
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