February 8, 201214 yr http://www.csnchicago.com/blog/whitesox-ta...mp;feedID=10338 Behind Paul Konerko's resurgence February 7, 2012, 10:10 pm Paul Konerko has hit 70 home runs in the last two seasons largely thanks to his ability to crush fastballs. (US Presswire) JJ STANKEVITZ csnchicago.png After hitting 28 home runs with an .842 OPS in 2009, it looked as if Paul Konerko was solidly on the downswing of his career. In his age 31-33 seasons, Konerko posted an .824 OPS with an average of 27 home runs hit per season. Good numbers, not great. But over the last two seasons, Konerko has looked as good as he did in his late 20's. He's hit 70 home runs with a .306/.391/.551 slash line, vaulting him back into ranks of the best offensive first basemen in the game. So what happened? Konerko made a shift in his plate approach to swing at more fastballs and fewer breaking balls. And he's absolutely crushed those fastballs. Comparing Konerko's 2009 pitch selection data to that of his 2010-2011 seasons (I'm throwing out 2008, since Konerko was hurt for a good chunk of that season) reveals that Konerko swung at a higher rate of fastballs over the last two seasons (about two percent) while swinging and missing at heaters at a lower rate. But the key here is how Konerko has laid off the slider. In 2009, Konerko swung at 42 percent of the sliders he saw, whiffing on 12 percent of those pitches. In 2010 and 2011, Konerko swung at 40 percent of the sliders he saw, whiffing on 16 percent of them. Those may not look like major changes, but they're nonetheless significant. And over the last two years, Konerko has been the second-best fastball hitter in the majors, only behind Cincinnati's Joey Votto. For every 100 fastballs Konerko sees, he's been worth 2.77 runs above average. These are the kind of tweaks a player needs to make as he reaches his mid-to-late 30's to not only stick around baseball, but be productive. Konerko has made them, and as long as his bat is able to catch up to fastballs, he should remain an integral part of the White Sox lineup. Of note: Check out Matthew Pouliot's first baseman projections over at Hardball Talk. He has Konerko projected to post the tenth-highest OPS among first baseman, ninth-best when you eliminate Miguel Cabrera.
February 9, 201214 yr Behind Paul Konerko's resurgence February 7, 2012, 10:10 pm Paul Konerko has hit 70 home runs in the last two seasons largely thanks to his ability to crush fastballs. (US Presswire) JJ STANKEVITZ csnchicago.png After hitting 28 home runs with an .842 OPS in 2009, it looked as if Paul Konerko was solidly on the downswing of his career. In his age 31-33 seasons, Konerko posted an .824 OPS with an average of 27 home runs hit per season. Good numbers, not great. But over the last two seasons, Konerko has looked as good as he did in his late 20's. He's hit 70 home runs with a .306/.391/.551 slash line, vaulting him back into ranks of the best offensive first basemen in the game. So what happened? Konerko made a shift in his plate approach to swing at more fastballs and fewer breaking balls. And he's absolutely crushed those fastballs. Comparing Konerko's 2009 pitch selection data to that of his 2010-2011 seasons (I'm throwing out 2008, since Konerko was hurt for a good chunk of that season) reveals that Konerko swung at a higher rate of fastballs over the last two seasons (about two percent) while swinging and missing at heaters at a lower rate. But the key here is how Konerko has laid off the slider. In 2009, Konerko swung at 42 percent of the sliders he saw, whiffing on 12 percent of those pitches. In 2010 and 2011, Konerko swung at 40 percent of the sliders he saw, whiffing on 16 percent of them. Those may not look like major changes, but they're nonetheless significant. And over the last two years, Konerko has been the second-best fastball hitter in the majors, only behind Cincinnati's Joey Votto. For every 100 fastballs Konerko sees, he's been worth 2.77 runs above average. These are the kind of tweaks a player needs to make as he reaches his mid-to-late 30's to not only stick around baseball, but be productive. Konerko has made them, and as long as his bat is able to catch up to fastballs, he should remain an integral part of the White Sox lineup. Of note: Check out Matthew Pouliot's first baseman projections over at Hardball Talk. He has Konerko projected to post the tenth-highest OPS among first baseman, ninth-best when you eliminate Miguel Cabrera. KING Edited February 9, 201214 yr by Andrew
February 10, 201214 yr But the key here is how Konerko has laid off the slider. In 2009, Konerko swung at 42 percent of the sliders he saw, whiffing on 12 percent of those pitches. In 2010 and 2011, Konerko swung at 40 percent of the sliders he saw, whiffing on 16 percent of them. Interesting. If you pick an arbitrary number like 1000 sliders. He is saying that in 2009 he swung at 420 of them, and missed on 50.4 of those. 2010 he swung at 400 of them and missed on 64 of them. So he is suggesting that Konerko got better by swinging at less but swinging and missing on more sliders? I don't buy it. He just pounded the fastballs more. The sliders are a non factor at best. Edited February 10, 201214 yr by MAX
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