Player Heat Maps

by Marc Fournier on Oct 13, 2011 12:27 AM EDT

Check out what Eric Simon created for us! What is it? A neat little tool that queries ESPN's batter heat maps for 2011 and outputs the image!

Totally awesome. Right? So let's take a look at some of the Diamondbacks:

- Justin Upton

- Chris Young

- Ryan Roberts

- Miguel Montero

- Gerardo Parra

- Willie Bloomquist

-Aaron Hill (not sure if this represents his entire season or just his time spent with Arizona)

- Henry Blanco

- Stephen Drew (partial season)

- Xavier Nady (lol)

- Geoff Blum (49 at-bats)

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If you had asked me

Which two D-backs control the strike zone the best, I probably wouldn’t have picked Montero and Parra… although, frankly, I probably should have.

lolNady and lolBlum, though.

Founder and Chairman of the Send Dan Some Pizzeria Bianco Commission (SDSPBC). SDSPBC is a totally, definitely for-profit organization.

by Dan Strittmatter on Oct 13, 2011 12:31 AM EDT reply actions

I'd put Upton

Ahead of Montero, but yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have guessed Parra and Miggy to rake like they did.

Wear your own fur.

by Marc Fournier on Oct 13, 2011 12:47 AM EDT up reply actions

this was freaking awesome btw!

Upton – I have never understood why people always say “the book on Upton is to pitch him inside.” It seemed obvious to me that with Upton’s bat speed, and his propensity to pull, that pitching him high and inside is not going to work. The heat map finally shows evidence bearing this out. Hopefully pitchers will stop pitching inside next year, which will mean fewer HBP’s (though also a lower OBP for Upton).

RyRo – The blue at the top of the zone was lighter than I thought it would be. On the other hand, the heavy blue surrounding the entire zone in general is why I’m scared he’s going to regress heavily next year. Unlike Upton, where if you pitch him away, he’s still got the ability to flip his wrists (is that what it’s called?) and line it opposite field, RyRo clearly doesn’t have that ability. If pitchers just consistently pitch on the outer half against RyRo, I think he can be exploited.

Miggy – Pretty much what I expected. He’s got great coverage over the outer half of the plate. I actually thought there’d be more blue inside, as I never felt like Miggy handled those pitches well. But I guess his bigger problem is that he still chases outside a lot.

Parra – Parra’s heat map makes me think hacker with great contact ability. Blue all around outside the zone, so he chases a lot. No definable weaknesses inside the zone. And the hot spot isn’t really predictable either.

by blue bulldog on Oct 13, 2011 1:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Ummmm

I’m pretty sure flipping your wrists is what you do to generate power. i.e. turning them over to generate additional bat speed as the ball goes through the zone and you make contact. Going opposite field typically involves letting the ball travel and staying back on it, and almost keeping your wrists back until after you hit the ball, no? I dunno, could be wrong.

Founder and Chairman of the Send Dan Some Pizzeria Bianco Commission (SDSPBC). SDSPBC is a totally, definitely for-profit organization.

by Dan Strittmatter on Oct 13, 2011 2:37 AM EDT up reply actions

ah

i see

well regardless of what skill/tool let’s Upton do it….his ability to do a ton of damage on those pitches on the outer half of the zone while still being able to do damage on inside pitches is what makes him ridiculously awesome

by blue bulldog on Oct 13, 2011 3:20 AM EDT up reply actions

No Paul Goldschmidt. :-(

Founder and Chairman of the Send Dan Some Pizzeria Bianco Commission (SDSPBC). SDSPBC is a totally, definitely for-profit organization.

by Dan Strittmatter on Oct 13, 2011 12:35 AM EDT reply actions

Nope.

Major bumsville.

Wear your own fur.

by Marc Fournier on Oct 13, 2011 12:46 AM EDT up reply actions

How did Konrad Schmidt

get on the list? Did ESPN get confused?

Riding the Gibbytrain since 2011!

by TylerO on Oct 13, 2011 1:15 AM EDT reply actions

Based on his mustache

I assume he tied someone to the railroad tracks until ESPN agreed to his demands.

"Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy, in which case always ignore a coincidence."

by kishi on Oct 13, 2011 3:25 AM EDT up reply actions

Justin Upton

I was playing around with Upton’s heat map some more and found some interesting nuggets.

As we all know, Upton murders fastballs. It pretty much doesn’t matter where you pitch a fastball at him. If it’s in the zone, it’s going to get killed. If it’s not in the zone, it’s probably not going to get swung at. And heck, just for good measure, if it’s inside, it’s got a decent shot at getting killed too.

Changeups are the most interesting though. If you look at Upton’s changeup heat map, there’s absolutely no middle ground. He either murders the changeup, when it’s a mistake pitch and up in the middle/top of the zone, or he gets murdered by the changeup, when it’s a tailing pitch and falls in the bottom third of the zone or out of the zone. Feast or famine. Which tells me that Upton has an extremely aggressive approach at the plate. He’s basically telling the pitcher, “throw a changeup if you dare. if you can make your pitch, then you’re almost certainly going to get me. but if you miss……..well you can kiss that ball goodbye.” He’s probably swinging at every changeup as if it were a mistake, and simply letting the benefits of hitting the mistake outweigh the costs of when it isn’t a mistake.

Which actually brings me to a second point, in relation to Goldschmidt. The guys who really don’t like Goldy dislike him because he is the definition of a mistake hitter. Quality stuff in good location will get Goldy out almost every time. Yeah, he’s also a good low-ball hitter. But Goldy basically lives off mistake pitches, and the scouts don’t think that’s going to translate to the majors.

What I think the scouts are heavily underestimating, is that it’s totally okay to live off of mistakes. You can still be a good hitter if you live off mistakes, because lots of pitchers make mistakes. Even the elite pitchers make mistake pitches, though of course one reason why they are elite is that they make fewer mistakes than other pitchers, and if you go after every pitch like it’s a mistake, then you will do a crapload of damage on the pitches that actually are mistakes.

by blue bulldog on Oct 13, 2011 1:30 AM EDT reply actions

If I'm reading

CY’s Heat Map right, it says he is really good at hitting balls about three, four feet off the plate. Is that right?

After 94 wins, and a trip to the NLDS, #InGibbyWeTrust!

by imstillhungry95 on Oct 13, 2011 2:20 AM EDT reply actions

haha

i bet that’s a sample size issue……

there was probably one pitch that he swung at waaay out of the zone, and it ended up being a hit. or maybe it was a bunt, where he reached. dunno.

by blue bulldog on Oct 13, 2011 3:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Well, so much for that...

ESPN has asked that this tool be removed. Though the intention was simply to make their great work available to people, I guess you’ll just have to be patient little nerds and wait until the product is finalized and released for public consumption.

"We have to resist it. Do whatever you have to. Cross your fingers. Say a prayer. Think of a basket of kittens. But do not give in to the fear..."

by Jim McLennan on Oct 13, 2011 10:42 PM EDT reply actions