Dave Eiland Doing His Best Dave Duncan Impression

Written by Josh W. | 20 May 2010

This year Yankees' pitchers have gotten groundballs on 45.1% of balls in play. Last year they had a rate of 42.3%. This may seem like a small difference at first, but over the course of the season this is a pretty significant change. Before the season, it seemed likely that the Yankees would get less groundballs this year due to the additions of flyball pitchers Javier Vazquez and Phil Hughes to the rotation. So what is cause of this surprising increase?

2009 2010

42.9%      51.7%

42.8%      49.7%

42.9%      47.3%

These are the groundball rates of three pitchers that comprise a large portion of Yankee innings: (starting from top to bottom) Sabathia, Burnett, and Pettitte. As you can see, all three pitchers are getting many more groundballs than last year. They have accomplished this by going to the two-seamer more often that ever. All three pitchers are throwing two-seamers at least 19.4% of the time this year. According to the pitch f/x data on Fangraphs, this is increase in usage of more than 12% for all three pitchers, and an increase of over 20% for Sabathia (who also had the greatest increase in groundball percentage from 2009 to 2010).

As all of us in Yankeeland are aware, Yankee Stadium gives up quite its share of homeruns. The best way to combat this pitching obstacle is to either strikeout more batters, or get more groundballs. Thankfully the Yankees have been working on the latter this season. We can also see this effect in how many homeruns the Yankees have given up. This year the Yankees are giving up 1.03 HR/9, while last year they gave up 1.12 HR/9. Obviously a slightly lower HR/FB rate this year and a league wide offensive dip contribute to this difference, but it's a significant change nonetheless.

The Cardinals' pitching coach, Dave Duncan, is known for his prowess in getting his pitchers to make opposing batters pound the ball into the ground. Now I have no idea whether Eiland communicated the advantages of such a strategy to Sabathia, Burnett, and Pettitte, but it's interesting that all three started throwing the two-seamer at much higher percentages this year.