Players · F · Pitcher · 2011 regular season

Nelson Figueroa

Age: 37
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 185 lb
Number: #27

Born: May 18, 1974 in Brooklyn, NY, United States
MLB debut: June 3, 2000

dbWAR: 1.9
IP: 29.0
ERA: 8.69
FIP: 4.85
K/9: 5.3
FIP−: 123

Nelson Figueroa was a starting pitcher for the Houston Astros. In 2011 he struck out 17 batters over 29.0 innings across 8 appearances, 5 of them starts, going 0-3. His ERA of 8.69 was 120.4% higher than the league average of 3.94 — the worst on his team, and 454th of 457 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.85 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 17.1% of swings (7.4% of every pitch he threw), walked 11.0% of the batters he faced and struck out 11.6%. His -0.0 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2011 regular season.

FIP4.85

K/95.3

WHIP2.10

WAR-.0

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2008–2011; his career began in 2000, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2011	HOU	8	5	29.0	0	3	0	45	28	17	16	8.69	4.85	2.10	5.3	5.0	220	123	-0.0
2010	HOU/PHI	31	11	93.0	7	4	1	84	34	73	34	3.29	4.07	1.27	7.1	3.3	81	100	0.7
2009	NYM	16	10	70.1	3	8	0	80	32	59	24	4.09	4.31	1.48	7.5	3.1	95	100	0.7
2008	NYM	16	6	45.1	3	3	0	48	23	36	26	4.57	4.26	1.63	7.1	5.2	106	98	0.4

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2008–2011; his career began in 2000, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2011	HOU	5	10	2	0	0	2	.222	.222	.222	.000	.286	0.0%	20.0%	.199	-0.9	16	0.0
2010	HOU/PHI	12	22	4	0	0	3	.235	.235	.294	.059	.286	0.0%	13.6%	.235	-1.6	39	0.1
2009	NYM	11	25	3	3	1	8	.136	.174	.227	.091	.214	4.0%	32.0%	.178	-3.2	-5	0.1
2008	NYM	7	15	1	0	2	6	.083	.214	.083	.000	.167	13.3%	40.0%	.168	-2.0	-13	0.0

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2011. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	43	36	10	1	7	7	.278	.395	.444	.380	16.3%
vs RHB	103	92	35	2	9	10	.380	.431	.511	.418	9.7%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2011.

Loading 3 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2011.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .254.

Pitch sequencing

What Nelson Figueroa throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamSliderCurveballSplitter

Select a count to see exactly what Nelson Figueroa throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	45.0%	248	86.9	1,669	37.9%	14.6%	60	.383	1.060
Slider	35.6%	196	81.5	1,056	40.8%	16.1%	38	.342	.855
Curveball	16.3%	90	74.4	1,659	37.8%	24.4%	25	.320	.720
Splitter	2.9%	16	79.1	966	31.3%	20.0%	5	—	—

Nelson Figueroa's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

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Nelson Figueroa

Similar players

Nearest 2011 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Vin MazzaroKC

ERA: 8.26
FIP: 5.85
SO: 10
WAR: -0.4

Comparable

Jordan SmithCIN

ERA: 7.20
FIP: 5.03
SO: 13
WAR: -0.1

Comparable

Esmil RogersCOL

ERA: 7.05
FIP: 5.62
SO: 63
WAR: -0.6

Comparable

Mitch TalbotCLE

ERA: 6.64
FIP: 5.40
SO: 36
WAR: -0.4

Comparable

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.