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If you’ve read just about any of my posts about pitching, you probably saw me cite IFFB% (infield fly ball percentage) at least once. This, of course, is a measure of the number of balls hit in the air that never left the infield. However, this is an imperfect stat on its own. We can make it better by doing one mathematical operation and turning it into PU%. No, that’s not a measure of a player’s odor.
Dad jokes aside, PU% is pop-up percentage and is better than IFFB% because unlike IFFB%, PU% is expressed as a percent of all balls in play while IFFB% is only as a percent of fly balls. For example, a pitcher might have a very high IFFB%, but is a ground ball pitcher and doesn’t allow many fly balls. Thus, his high IFFB% doesn’t translate to many outs and we are most concerned with how a pitcher generates outs. You see, pop ups are almost guaranteed outs and can be considered almost equal with strikeouts.
So, why do I often use IFFB%? Because Fangraphs (my main data source) readily supplies IFFB% data but does not provide PU%. It requires that additional step of analysis. The math involved is pretty simple. PU% = IFFB% x FB%. It’s as simple as that. Regardless, it can be hard to find leaderboards with this stat in them so you can identify the league leaders and perhaps uncover some pitchers that make up for mediocre strikeout rates with elite PU%.
Today I’m going to show the PU% leaders for 2016. Hopefully this will be useful in preparation for 2017. The table will be limited to only the top 100 and only starters with more than 40 innings pitched, to keep it simple.
After that table, I put together a table where K% and PU% are added together. This shows a starter’s “easy out” percentage, which are outs that the pitcher doesn’t really have to rely on his defense for. The pitcher is basically in complete control of these outs. Thus, it is a measure of pitcher dominance over hitters and is likely to be very sustainable.
The top pitchers in this metric should be reliable fantasy options from start to start and less dependent on BABIP and luck. Further, this stat rewards starters that might be missed by other measures of value like xFIP, FIP, K%-BB%, etc. This is especially true for fly-ball pitchers that work high in the zone with their four-seam, like Drew Smyly or Marco Estrada. I hope you find both of these leaderboards to be useful when preparing for 2017.
Without further ado, here are the two tables I promised:
Name | PU% |
---|---|
Ariel Miranda | 8.8% |
Marco Estrada | 8.1% |
Drew Smyly | 7.8% |
Dylan Bundy | 7.4% |
Jered Weaver | 7.1% |
Matt Cain | 6.8% |
Hector Santiago | 6.8% |
Clay Buchholz | 6.7% |
A.J. Griffin | 6.6% |
Anibal Sanchez | 6.6% |
Matt Boyd | 6.4% |
Max Scherzer | 6.3% |
Ian Kennedy | 6.1% |
Christian Friedrich | 5.9% |
Ryan Vogelsong | 5.9% |
Jordan Zimmermann | 5.9% |
Nick Tropeano | 5.8% |
Mike Clevinger | 5.7% |
Aaron Blair | 5.5% |
Eduardo Rodriguez | 5.4% |
Justin Verlander | 5.4% |
Chris Young | 5.3% |
Rick Porcello | 5.2% |
Jose Quintana | 5.2% |
Scott Kazmir | 5.1% |
R.A. Dickey | 5.1% |
Juan Nicasio | 5.1% |
Jerad Eickhoff | 5.0% |
Vince Velasquez | 5.0% |
Kevin Gausman | 5.0% |
Jeremy Hellickson | 4.9% |
Matt Shoemaker | 4.8% |
Jake Peavy | 4.7% |
Taijuan Walker | 4.7% |
Madison Bumgarner | 4.6% |
Matt Andriese | 4.5% |
Clayton Kershaw | 4.5% |
CC Sabathia | 4.5% |
Zach Eflin | 4.5% |
Rich Hill | 4.5% |
Collin McHugh | 4.5% |
Mike Wright | 4.5% |
Brandon McCarthy | 4.4% |
Phil Hughes | 4.4% |
Drew Pomeranz | 4.4% |
Julio Urias | 4.3% |
Paul Clemens | 4.2% |
Mike Fiers | 4.2% |
Mike Pelfrey | 4.2% |
Hisashi Iwakuma | 4.2% |
Junior Guerra | 4.2% |
John Lamb | 4.2% |
Mike Foltynewicz | 4.1% |
Matt Garza | 4.1% |
Jake Odorizzi | 4.0% |
Adam Conley | 4.0% |
Derek Holland | 4.0% |
Yu Darvish | 4.0% |
Kenta Maeda | 4.0% |
Joe Musgrove | 4.0% |
Jimmy Nelson | 3.8% |
Matt Harvey | 3.8% |
Zack Greinke | 3.7% |
Masahiro Tanaka | 3.7% |
Dillon Gee | 3.7% |
Dan Straily | 3.7% |
Danny Duffy | 3.7% |
Danny Salazar | 3.7% |
Robert Gsellman | 3.6% |
Bartolo Colon | 3.6% |
Julio Teheran | 3.6% |
Colby Lewis | 3.6% |
Jake Thompson | 3.6% |
Adam Morgan | 3.6% |
Miguel Gonzalez | 3.6% |
Nate Karns | 3.5% |
Michael Fulmer | 3.5% |
David Price | 3.5% |
Chris Sale | 3.5% |
Steven Wright | 3.5% |
Jose Urena | 3.5% |
Pat Dean | 3.5% |
Jon Lester | 3.4% |
Edwin Jackson | 3.4% |
Johnny Cueto | 3.4% |
Tom Koehler | 3.4% |
J.A. Happ | 3.4% |
Cody Anderson | 3.4% |
Gerrit Cole | 3.4% |
Robbie Ray | 3.4% |
Carlos Rodon | 3.4% |
Matt Moore | 3.3% |
Adam Wainwright | 3.3% |
Colin Rea | 3.2% |
Shelby Miller | 3.2% |
Jose Berrios | 3.2% |
Tyler Duffey | 3.2% |
Jorge de la Rosa | 3.1% |
Anthony DeSclafani | 3.1% |
John Lackey | 3.0% |
Name | K% + PU% |
---|---|
Max Scherzer | 37.77% |
Jose Fernandez | 36.74% |
Clayton Kershaw | 36.15% |
Yu Darvish | 35.70% |
Rich Hill | 33.91% |
Stephen Strasburg | 33.62% |
Justin Verlander | 33.49% |
Vince Velasquez | 32.59% |
Madison Bumgarner | 32.11% |
Lance McCullers | 32.10% |
Robbie Ray | 31.46% |
Noah Syndergaard | 31.34% |
Danny Salazar | 31.25% |
Brandon McCarthy | 31.14% |
Dylan Bundy | 30.94% |
Marco Estrada | 30.90% |
Drew Pomeranz | 30.79% |
Drew Smyly | 30.44% |
Julio Urias | 30.08% |
Chris Archer | 30.02% |
Chris Sale | 29.22% |
Danny Duffy | 29.08% |
Kenta Maeda | 29.00% |
Nick Tropeano | 28.81% |
Corey Kluber | 28.72% |
Jon Gray | 28.72% |
Michael Pineda | 28.64% |
Ian Kennedy | 28.55% |
Juan Nicasio | 28.40% |
Alex Wood | 28.25% |
Jon Lester | 28.24% |
Kevin Gausman | 27.96% |
Chris Young | 27.91% |
Scott Kazmir | 27.83% |
A.J. Griffin | 27.64% |
David Price | 27.53% |
Robert Gsellman | 27.34% |
Nate Karns | 27.23% |
Eduardo Rodriguez | 27.23% |
Blake Snell | 27.22% |
John Lackey | 27.15% |
Anibal Sanchez | 27.04% |
Ariel Miranda | 26.92% |
Carlos Rodon | 26.85% |
Jose Quintana | 26.79% |
Collin McHugh | 26.70% |
Matt Boyd | 26.63% |
Rick Porcello | 26.44% |
Steven Matz | 26.33% |
Matt Shoemaker | 26.22% |
Daniel Norris | 26.21% |
Jacob deGrom | 26.14% |
Aaron Nola | 26.04% |
Jake Arrieta | 26.02% |
Carlos Carrasco | 25.98% |
Johnny Cueto | 25.92% |
Kyle Hendricks | 25.64% |
Julio Teheran | 25.60% |
Jerad Eickhoff | 25.59% |
Jake Odorizzi | 25.54% |
Taijuan Walker | 25.50% |
James Paxton | 25.37% |
Mike Clevinger | 25.33% |
Adam Conley | 25.23% |
Mike Foltynewicz | 25.21% |
Rubby de la Rosa | 25.19% |
Hector Santiago | 25.05% |
Gio Gonzalez | 24.94% |
Tyler Skaggs | 24.93% |
Jeremy Hellickson | 24.92% |
Cole Hamels | 24.86% |
Matt Andriese | 24.75% |
Matt Moore | 24.53% |
Junior Guerra | 24.45% |
CC Sabathia | 24.32% |
Matt Cain | 24.29% |
Francisco Liriano | 24.24% |
Masahiro Tanaka | 24.22% |
Archie Bradley | 24.07% |
Dan Straily | 24.00% |
Michael Fulmer | 23.93% |
J.A. Happ | 23.91% |
Zack Greinke | 23.83% |
Anthony DeSclafani | 23.79% |
Sean Manaea | 23.75% |
Jason Hammel | 23.73% |
Jake Peavy | 23.72% |
Joe Ross | 23.71% |
Christian Friedrich | 23.65% |
Joe Musgrove | 23.47% |
Ryan Vogelsong | 23.37% |
Trevor Bauer | 23.31% |
Daniel Mengden | 23.22% |
Mike Fiers | 23.14% |
Dallas Keuchel | 23.11% |
Tyler Anderson | 23.05% |
Steven Wright | 22.91% |
Jameson Taillon | 22.90% |
Bud Norris | 22.89% |
Carlos Martinez | 22.80% |
I will let you all ruminate on these leaderboards for a little while. In my next post, I will dig more into these tables and see if I can identify some sleepers. Tschus!