Guzman’s NPB Career So Far
I’ve mentioned once or twice that Joel Guzman hasn’t looked good at the plate so far this season. On Thursday he went 2-3 against Yakult to bring his average up a little bit, but he he still has a rough line so far: 37 plate appearances, 6 hits, 1 home run, 17 strikeouts, 0 walks. Obviously if this continues, his Chunichi Dragons career won’t last long.
I dug in a little and charted the result he’s gotten on each of the pitches he’s faced so far this season.
| result | count |
|---|---|
| ball | 60 |
| flyball hit | 3 |
| flyout | 7 |
| foul | 30 |
| groundball hit | 1 |
| groundout | 6 |
| hbp | 1 |
| home run | 1 |
| linedrive single | 1 |
| strike looking | 24 |
| strike swinging | 30 |
Yikes. About one pitch out of three has resulted in a called strike or a whiff for Guzman. My perception was that Guzman had been waving at a lot of breaking pitches, so I narrowed my query to just look at strikes.
| pitch | result | count |
|---|---|---|
| curve | strike looking | 2 |
| cut fastball | strike looking | 1 |
| fastball | strike looking | 12 |
| shuuto | strike looking | 1 |
| slider | strike looking | 8 |
| changeup | strike swinging | 1 |
| cut fastball | strike swinging | 3 |
| fastball | strike swinging | 10 |
| forkball | strike swinging | 2 |
| shuuto | strike swinging | 1 |
| sinker | strike swinging | 1 |
| slider | strike swinging | 12 |
I don’t mind the strikes looking so much; those are explainable by taking first pitch fastballs, and adjusting to a new strike zone. The number of fastballs he’s swung through surprises me though.
So is there any hope for Guzman? Maybe, but he needs to quickly make some adjustments, notably laying off breaking pitches, waiting for fastballs, and identifying mistake pitches.
Comments are closed.