A Zone of His Own?

About one-half of the pitches thrown in the major leagues are in the strike zone; a little more than half for some hitters, a little less than half for others. With the exception of one hitter, the "in the zone percentage" for every major league hitter seeing 500 or more pitches was between 41 and 59 in 2007.

The exception, however, was not at 40.8%, or 40.4%, or 40%, or 39% or 38. Of the 2,037 pitches thrown to Vladimir Guerrero, only an astonishing 32% were in the strike zone. On the spectrum of strikes seen, the next-lowest hitter was as close to the middle as he was to Vladimir.

This "nugget" is one of hundreds that appear in the new The Bill James Gold Mine 2008, which will arrive in our warehouse and ship to customers tomorrow. The stats themselves are taken from Bill James Online, which is now up and running at www.billjamesonline.com.