Posted Under: Stat of the Week
This week we’re looking at Plate Discipline and the statistics:
O-Swing%
O-Contact%
Z-Swing%
Z-Contact%
Swing%
Contact%
The O-Plate Discipline statistics keep track of pitches Outside of the strike zone, while the Z-Plate Discipline track the pitches inside the strike zone. The MLB Averages for each statistic are:
| O-Swing% | 30% |
| O-Contact% | 68% |
| Z-Swing% | 65% |
| Z-Contact% | 88% |
| Swing% | 46% |
| Contact% | 81% |
Now let’s look at Vladimir Guerrero’s career stats since he was known to swing at pitches way out of the strike zone and still make contact with them at a high clip (courtesy of FanGraphs):
| Season | Team | ||||||
| 2002 | Expos |
32.6 % |
86.1 % |
57.5 % |
53.2 % |
86.2 % |
76.2 % |
| 2003 | Expos |
34.8 % |
83.4 % |
55.1 % |
58.3 % |
87.3 % |
76.6 % |
| 2004 | Angels |
29.9 % |
90.2 % |
61.4 % |
59.2 % |
88.6 % |
81.8 % |
| 2005 | Angels |
32.2 % |
84.2 % |
55.7 % |
66.5 % |
91.0 % |
83.3 % |
| 2006 | Angels |
40.3 % |
86.6 % |
61.6 % |
68.2 % |
91.4 % |
83.2 % |
| 2007 | Angels |
45.3 % |
82.3 % |
57.4 % |
71.3 % |
90.1 % |
80.1 % |
| 2008 | Angels |
45.5 % |
81.7 % |
60.3 % |
69.7 % |
91.4 % |
81.7 % |
| 2009 | Angels |
44.0 % |
82.6 % |
60.7 % |
72.5 % |
87.2 % |
81.1 % |
| 2010 | Rangers |
47.0 % |
80.8 % |
60.6 % |
71.1 % |
88.3 % |
80.3 % |
| 2011 | Orioles |
47.4 % |
80.6 % |
60.4 % |
73.6 % |
89.7 % |
82.1 % |
| Total | - - - |
40.3 % |
84.3 % |
59.1 % |
67.4 % |
89.1 % |
80.7 % |
From these numbers we can see that from 2006 to 2011, the tail end of Vlad’s career, that his pitch selection fell off incredibly and his O-Swing% or the percentage of pitches he swung at outside the strike zone increased tremendously. What is interesting though is that he gained this confidence in swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone because his contact percentage on balls outside the strike zone, O-Contact%, also increased during this time compared to his numbers from 2002-2005. All of Vlad’s career contact percentage numbers are league average but it is his swing percentage numbers that display how free a swinger he truly was.
| Plate Discipline Stat | Vlad Career | MLB Average |
| O-Swing% | 40.3% | 30% |
| Z-Swing% | 84.9% | 65% |
| Swing% | 59.1% | 46% |
Now one player who transformed his career by learning how to throw the knuckleball, R.A. Dickey, is another interesting case for plate discipline as he throws a pitch that is hard for batters to determine whether it will be in the strike zone or not (courtesy of FanGraphs)
| Season | Team | ||||||
| 2003 | Rangers |
21.1 % |
71.2 % |
46.3 % |
37.0 % |
89.4 % |
77.6 % |
| 2004 | Rangers |
15.8 % |
70.8 % |
46.4 % |
59.2 % |
85.3 % |
81.4 % |
| 2005 | Rangers |
9.9 % |
66.8 % |
39.7 % |
59.1 % |
90.2 % |
86.5 % |
| 2006 | Rangers |
29.6 % |
70.6 % |
52.5 % |
87.5 % |
91.7 % |
90.6 % |
| 2008 | Mariners |
20.2 % |
64.5 % |
43.4 % |
68.5 % |
89.8 % |
85.1 % |
| 2009 | Twins |
20.1 % |
62.5 % |
42.4 % |
70.2 % |
88.0 % |
84.0 % |
| 2010 | Mets |
29.4 % |
66.0 % |
48.8 % |
69.8 % |
86.8 % |
82.0 % |
| 2011 | Mets |
29.0 % |
65.1 % |
48.2 % |
74.9 % |
86.8 % |
83.4 % |
| 2012 | Mets |
34.0 % |
66.4 % |
50.6 % |
68.2 % |
78.9 % |
75.4 % |
| Total | - - - |
25.6 % |
66.7 % |
47.2 % |
66.2 % |
85.9 % |
80.8 % |
From Dickey’s numbers this past season you can tell from his Swing% that he is fooling more hitters than the average pitcher given a higher Swing% than league average, and holding hitters’ Z-Contact% to almost 10 percentage points lower than league average.
