Most feared hitter? ESPN says Braun

[pretendastronaut]

There is an article on ESPN Insider about this right now. I'm not sure if rules permit me to copy the whole thing, so I'll convey the crux of it with a the important quotes;

What we cared about, for the purposes of this piece, was uncovering a hitter whom pitchers like Johan Santana, Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum hate to see stepping into that box.

How did we conduct this study? We started by working with ESPN Stats & Information whiz Mark Simon to look at how all active hitters have fared in their careers against the following illustrious group of pitchers:

Santana, Halladay, Lincecum, Roy Oswalt, Josh Beckett, Mariano Rivera, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, John Smoltz, Chris Carpenter, Randy Johnson, Billy Wagner and Trevor Hoffman.

We tried to pick a cross-section of pitchers who had track records as dominators, who gave us a sample size that included hitters in both leagues and whose ranks included the three most successful closers of the past decade.

Then we took the hitters with the best stats against that list, broke down the numbers further and ran the final candidates by a panel of scouts. In the end, two men separated themselves -- Derrek Lee and Braun.

But his numbers against great pitchers are amazing. Such as:

.538 (with a .692 slugging pct.) versus Santana
.500 (with a 1.286 slugging pct.) versus Oswalt
.462 (with a .923 slugging pct.) versus Lincecum

Want more? Braun has hit .364 against Smoltz, .667 against Beckett, .400 against Brad Lidge and .455 against Tim Hudson. He has slugged .750 against Johnson, .917 against Cole Hamels, .583 against Matt Cain and 1.250 against Jeff Francis.

Against pitchers with an ERA of 3.50 or better, he hit .292 (with an .830 OPS) last year. He was even better against that group (.302, with a .937 OPS) the year before.

When facing elite arms, bet on Braun

[Invader3K]

Yep, he's truly a special hitter, and my favorite player currently. We're pretty darn lucky to have him around.

[logan82]

Good thing they didn't use a small sample to make their determination.

[Hammer]

Good thing they didn't use a small sample to make their determination.

Exactly. All I kept thinking while reading that post was SAMPLE SIZE.....SAMPLE SIZE......SAMPLE SIZE!

[Invader3K]

There's a posting on the JSOnline blog that goes more in depth with this.

[sheetswannabe]

Why is Jeff Francis in the list of good pitchers? haha

[Team Canada]

I find it funny and a little disturbing that TH is clueless enough to say "For those of you who don't have "Insider" status on ESPN.com, here is a transcript of the complete story."

 

Uh, Tom, that's kinda the whole point of Insider.

[crewcrazy]

I find it funny and a little disturbing that TH is clueless enough to say "For those of you who don't have "Insider" status on ESPN.com, here is a transcript of the complete story."

 

Uh, Tom, that's kinda the whole point of Insider.

And they say those still in the print industry don't know how to make money on the Internet...

 

On the topic of the article, it's definitely nice exposure for Braun and the Brewers, but I'll agree that it probably doesn't mean much. A neat read for January, though.

[1992casey]

I'm not sure if rules permit me to copy the whole thing, so I'll convey the crux of it with a the important quotes;

 

That's how it needs to be done. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Two or three snippets to get discussion going is fine.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

I think Fielder is probably more feared than Braun. Fielder has a better eye and makes better decisions on swinging at balls out of the strike zone. He works the pitchers more.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, BSC, I was just going to post that I'd take Fielder over Braun... and for the same reasons you outlined above. And of course he hits lefty, to boot.

[BREWCREW5]

With everything on the line...I'm taking Braun.

[Schlitz001]

Good thing they didn't use a small sample to make their determination.

He doesn't have more than 14 ABs against any of the guys mentioned in the article and he's 2 for 3 against Beckett. Wes Helms is also hitting .667 against Beckett. (Not to take anything away from Braun)

[logan82]

Sarcasm man, sarcasm. Any pitcher vs hitter matchup will tell you basically nothing except what happened. Was Braun good against these guys? Sure, but that doesn't mean he will hit well against them in the future.

[NormanBoobie]

Yeah, the sample size against each pitcher is small, but thats not what the study was about. It was who was most devastating against the best pitchers of the game - collectively. Braun takes the cake as far as anyone else goes, and if anyone has any qualms about it, it should be about why he is any less of a tyrant against below superstar status pitching.

[Invader3K]

I think Fielder is probably more feared than Braun. Fielder has a better eye and makes better decisions on swinging at balls out of the strike zone. He works the pitchers more.

Plus if you tick off Fielder he'll try to bust into your locker room after the game.

[rluzinski]

Anytime I see the words "ESPN" and "study" together, I know I'm in for treat. Why is baseball so infatuated with phrases like "most feared" anyway? If they had simply proposed to see which batters did the best against a subjectively choosen list of good pitchers, it would have been interesting.

[Invader3K]

Yeah..."feared" implies more like feeling or opinion than hard data. If they had done a survey of the top pitchers in the league and most answered that they "feared" Braun the most, that would be a little more accurate.