Hot Holland
So Derek Holland just threw two consecutive complete games. He had two in his career (one in 2009, one earlier in June).
Best part: The start before those back-to-back games lasted than an inning. Go figure.
Naturally, this compelled me to look at some of his peripheral stats and plow through and finalize all of his pitch classifications.
| Season | B:CS | IWZ | GB% |
| 2009 | 2.0 | 0.558 | 0.42 |
| 2010 | 2.3 | 0.503 | 0.43 |
| 2011 | 1.8 | 0.558 | 0.47 |
Holland has gone from average to above average in ground balls. He’s also become/returned to being a control pitcher.
Pitch mix when starting
| Season | # | Four-seam FB | Two-seam FB | Change | Curveball | Slider |
| 2009 | 1880 | 46% | 23% | 11% | 8% | 11% |
| 2010 | 870 | 48% | 13% | 13% | 6% | 20% |
| 2011 | 1895 | 42% | 21% | 14% | 10% | 13% |
vs RHH
| Season | # | Four-seam FB | Two-seam FB | Change | Curveball | Slider |
| 2009 | 1461 | 43% | 23% | 14% | 8% | 12% |
| 2010 | 719 | 47% | 14% | 16% | 6% | 18% |
| 2011 | 1440 | 39% | 22% | 18% | 12% | 9% |
vs LHH
| Season | # | Four-seam FB | Two-seam FB | Change | Curveball | Slider |
| 2009 | 419 | 58% | 21% | 2% | 9% | 11% |
| 2010 | 151 | 52% | 9% | 3% | 7% | 28% |
| 2011 | 455 | 51% | 21% | 3% | 4% | 22% |
In a nutshell, the sinking two-seam fastball has returned and he’s tossing more curveballs to right-handed batters.
Zooming in on 2011 shows what may be the most striking thing of all.
While Holland’s sinker usage has picked-up in 2011, it’s actually his four-seam fastball that’s picked-up usage as 2011 moves forward.
More heaters on top of a bigger base of sinkers equals a hotter Holland?