Patient teams usually win more games than teams jumping at pitches early in the count. This is no surprise. The book Moneyball brought this thought into the mainstream. I was wondering what the Minnesota Twins looked like when you just look at each player's pitches per plate appearance. Here are the results with plate appearances in parenthesis:
1) Nick Punto 4.20 (440)
2) Joe Mauer 4.18 (606)
3) Jason Kubel 4.04 (577)
4) Jose Morales 4.04 (134)
5) JJ Hardy 3.98 (465)
6) Denard Span 3.91 (676)
7) Michael Cuddyer 3.88 (650)
8) Brendan Harris 3.85 (454)
(league avg 3.84)
9) Alexi Casilla 3.77 (256)
10) Matt Tolbert 3.73 (231)
11) Justin Morneau 3.70 (590)
12) Joe Crede 3.69 (367)
13) Orlando Cabrera 3.68 (260)
14) Carlos Gomez 3.55 (349)
15) Delmon Young 3.50 (416)
JJ Hardy will be a welcome addition if he can work the count as he did last season. His career pitches per plate appearances is an above average 3.87 so that trend should continue. Nick Punto posted a career high last season at 4.20. His career average is 3.97 so there may be a slight regression for him. Joe Mauer also had a career high, but it was his 3rd straight season of seeing 4 or more pitches per plate appearance and that should continue with him seeing even fewer fastballs next year. Also, Jason Kubel showed increased maturity by pushing his pitches looked at per plate appearance to 4+ last season for the first time. All in all interesting numbers to look at, especially with the Hardy addition.
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