NL Home/Road Splits, Facing Relievers

by TheJay on Jul 2, 2008 10:57 PM CDT Comment 1 comment

The problems the Brewers have had scoring runs off relief pitchers on this road trip got me to thinking. The team has scored one run in 26 2/3 relief innings on the road trip, good for a 0.34 ERA. That's a pretty ugly number, to be sure. Here are more ugly numbers: the team has hit only .146/.191/.202 in 96 PA off relievers on this trip. A silver lining, perhaps, is that they've only got a .191 BABIP in that stretch so the hits haven't really been falling in. Given the team's recent tradition of struggling on the road, I wondered how badly they hit relievers on the road all season. Before this last road trip started, the team was hitting .225/.314/.353 in 536 PA (.270 BABIP) against relief pitchers away from Miller Park. Opposing relievers had an ERA of 3.46 (RA of 4.10) against the Brewers. Combining this abysmal road trip with those numbers gives a cumulative line of .212/.296/.329 (.257 BABIP) in 632 PA. Relievers in their home park have an ERA of 2.91 and RA of 3.44 against the Crew. That means, when on the road, relief pitchers turn the Crew into Gary Bennett.

As Jeff has noted, however, the average hitter in the 2008 NL isn't very good against relievers in general. In keeping with the comparison to an ex-Brewer's career numbers, the average hitter against relievers this year is Alex Sanchez. So then, of course, I wondered how the Brewers at home and on the road stacked up against the rest of the National League. I put together two tables sorted by OPS that should help the comparisons.

First, the story of NL teams on the road.

2008 NL Teams Hitting Against Relievers on the Road (through 7/1)
Team	IP	R	ER	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BABIP	RA	ERA
STL	159.0	84	78	708	613	167	33	1	22	80	128	6	5	4	.272	.360	.437	.797	.310	4.75	4.42
PHI	140.0	90	84	647	556	151	37	5	11	72	120	8	7	4	.272	.361	.415	.776	.326	5.79	5.40
CIN	143.7	71	65	641	560	152	28	1	18	63	114	4	8	6	.271	.346	.421	.767	.309	4.45	4.07
FLA	134.0	66	61	584	517	127	20	2	21	55	136	3	5	4	.246	.320	.414	.733	.291	4.43	4.10
PIT	149.7	80	72	654	583	144	28	2	21	55	125	6	6	4	.247	.316	.410	.726	.279	4.81	4.33
SDP	113.0	49	48	470	418	103	19	3	12	42	100	4	1	5	.246	.318	.392	.710	.293	3.90	3.82
SFG	149.3	65	62	631	556	138	28	3	13	60	115	7	2	6	.248	.326	.379	.705	.288	3.92	3.74
LAD	119.7	62	56	518	449	117	22	3	4	61	82	3	2	3	.261	.351	.350	.700	.309	4.66	4.21
CHC	142.3	55	52	616	529	129	28	1	11	69	126	8	5	5	.244	.337	.363	.700	.297	3.48	3.29
WSN	123.0	62	54	538	468	111	24	0	9	58	107	7	3	2	.237	.329	.346	.675	.288	4.54	3.95
ATL	126.0	46	42	532	473	112	27	2	7	55	101	1	1	2	.237	.316	.347	.663	.286	3.29	3.00
NYM	139.0	63	58	580	521	123	26	2	13	43	98	2	6	8	.236	.293	.369	.661	.263	4.08	3.76
COL	148.3	58	52	625	561	137	30	1	9	50	134	5	8	1	.244	.311	.349	.661	.305	3.52	3.16
ARI	137.0	47	43	572	486	98	17	3	14	66	128	6	8	6	.202	.301	.335	.637	.240	3.09	2.82
MIL	151.7	58	49	632	556	118	28	2	11	55	132	12	6	3	.212	.296	.329	.625	.257	3.44	2.91
HOU	120.0	42	33	487	438	97	13	3	9	37	87	2	3	7	.221	.281	.326	.607	.252	3.15	2.48
NL	2195.7	998	909	9435	8284	2024	408	34	205	921	1833	84	76	70	.244	.324	.376	.700	.288	4.09	3.73

Yuck. That's not fun to look at. Hopefully more hits fall in soon and that BABIP gets closer to the league average. On the brighter side, the Brewers are doing better at home.

2008 NL Teams Hitting Against Relievers at Home (through 7/1)
Team	IP	R	ER	BF	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BABIP	RA	ERA
CHC	138.3	107	95	665	565	172	31	0	24	80	131	8	6	6	.304	.395	.487	.881	.356	6.96	6.18
ATL	132.0	84	80	613	517	139	26	5	16	73	113	8	9	6	.269	.364	.431	.796	.312	5.73	5.45
MIL	113.7	50	48	491	430	107	15	8	20	49	79	3	6	3	.249	.328	.460	.788	.260	3.96	3.80
CIN	120.0	63	58	525	456	112	19	2	21	58	107	3	8	0	.246	.335	.434	.769	.277	4.73	4.35
PHI	126.0	67	65	552	484	118	26	3	20	54	107	8	4	2	.244	.328	.434	.762	.273	4.79	4.64
COL	125.7	63	56	543	473	117	26	7	12	54	104	5	10	1	.247	.330	.408	.738	.293	4.51	4.01
SFG	112.7	46	42	480	422	110	21	6	6	45	82	4	3	6	.261	.333	.382	.715	.306	3.67	3.36
HOU	129.0	53	46	549	487	121	30	3	11	49	92	4	6	3	.248	.320	.390	.711	.284	3.70	3.21
ARI	120.3	52	41	501	443	104	26	4	12	42	113	8	3	5	.235	.309	.393	.702	.285	3.89	3.07
FLA	123.0	54	52	523	452	103	19	2	16	54	138	6	6	5	.228	.315	.385	.700	.287	3.95	3.80
LAD	124.0	44	37	525	466	117	26	1	7	44	99	5	8	2	.251	.321	.356	.677	.304	3.19	2.69
STL	128.3	38	34	543	480	112	24	2	8	50	85	4	8	1	.233	.310	.342	.652	.268	2.66	2.38
PIT	139.0	54	50	586	516	122	27	1	8	50	99	6	8	6	.236	.308	.339	.647	.275	3.50	3.24
NYM	151.0	47	43	636	543	120	22	2	6	77	113	3	11	2	.221	.320	.302	.622	.268	2.80	2.56
SDP	161.7	51	47	657	584	121	14	2	14	58	150	8	4	3	.207	.286	.310	.596	.253	2.84	2.62
WSN	129.3	40	38	528	457	93	17	1	6	60	106	6	3	2	.204	.303	.284	.587	.251	2.78	2.64
NL	2074.0	913	832	8917	7775	1888	369	49	207	897	1718	89	103	53	.243	.326	.383	.709	.285	3.96	3.61

It sucks that the team hasn't been able to plate more runs against relievers at home with their good hitting. It's a testament to their winning ways in Miller Park that they've had the second-fewest relief innings pitched against them there (fewer ninth innings). Once again, hopefully that BABIP gets up to league average levels.

Of course, now that tonight's game has seen relievers and Rickie Weeks has given the Crew the lead all of this is out of date anyway. :)

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interesting read

thanks for the effort. One small perhaps meaningless note: on my system with a 13” laptop screen unless I go to quite a small type size, the chart cuts off in the middle of babip. Not a big deal though.

by ol Pete on Jul 3, 2008 12:39 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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