@Ryan - While I do enjoy that two completely different fastballs were on this list, it's wise to remember that opponent slash lines can be misleading.
Dave H
Thanks for the info, Ryan. It gives me one more reason to like Holland's chances of breaking out.
Spanky68
I predicted a breakout year from Holland last year, but injury (and perhaps a lack of focus according to recent stories) prevented that from happening. This year he's healthy (hopefully) and more mature and fulfills his promise. His peripherals have been pretty positive even in the midst of less than stellar results. He'll be the 3rd starter by mid season.
t ball
I'll decide what's interesting.
Joey
This was from his column a few days ago looking at success rate of different pitches for each league. I'll just post AL since thats all that I really care about.
These AL pitchers had the highest rate of success with two- and four-seam fastballs.
Pitcher BAVG SLG OBP OPS
Thornton, Matt .184 .279 .249 .528
Feliz, Neftali .190 .283 .262 .545
Oliver, Darren .217 .316 .262 .578
Soria, Joakim .228 .327 .271 .598
Bard, Daniel .210 .320 .293 .614
Breslow, Craig .198 .364 .278 .642
Lee, Cliff .245 .382 .268 .650
Price, David .220 .343 .308 .651
Perez, Chris .194 .344 .309 .652
Downs, Scott .242 .352 .302 .653
Here are the best AL stats among pitchers who threw at least 100 cutters:
Pitcher BAVG SLG OBP OPS
Lester, Jon .166 .201 .223 .424
Rivera, Mariano .174 .234 .211 .445
Bailey, Andrew .178 .267 .191 .458
Buchholz, Clay .207 .217 .255 .472
Westbrook, Jake .185 .222 .267 .489
Here are the best numbers for curveballs among the AL pitchers who threw 200+ curves.
Pitcher BAVG SLG OBP OPS
Anderson, Brett .158 .158 .158 .316
Verlander, Justin .149 .188 .165 .353
Sabathia, CC .149 .191 .167 .358
Romero, Ricky .133 .195 .170 .366
Gonzalez, Gio .150 .199 .187 .386
Arrieta, Jake .186 .209 .182 .391
Wright, Jamey .137 .196 .196 .393
Lester, Jon .136 .208 .185 .393
Chen, Bruce .178 .205 .208 .413
Floyd, Gavin .164 .242 .176 .418
Here are the best numbers for sliders, among the AL pitchers who threw many of them.
Pitcher BAVG SLG OBP OPS
Bard, Daniel .085 .136 .127 .263
Hochevar, Luke .088 .123 .148 .270
Verlander, Justin .106 .152 .145 .296
Choate, Randy .122 .163 .137 .301
Holland, Derek .106 .149 .160 .309
I found it interesting that Feliz and Oliver were 2 and 3 for FB. each has such a different strength and style, yet they had almost the same results