Players · F · Pitcher · 2008 regular season

Brian Falkenborg

Los Angeles Dodgers National League West

Age: 30
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 7"
Weight: 235 lb
Number: #49

Born: January 18, 1978 in Newport Beach, CA, United States
MLB debut: October 1, 1999

dbWAR: .1
IP: 22.1
ERA: 5.24
FIP: 5.37
K/9: 7.7
FIP−: 124

Brian Falkenborg was a relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2008 he struck out 19 batters over 22.1 innings across 25 appearances, going 2-3. His ERA of 5.24 was 21.2% higher than the league average of 4.32 — 14th of 17 on his team, and 361st of 482 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.37 FIP suggests the ERA was no fluke. He missed bats on 19.6% of swings (8.9% of every pitch he threw), walked 11.8% of the batters he faced and struck out 18.6%. His -0.2 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, 2008 regular season.

FIP5.37

K/97.7

WHIP1.70

WAR-.2

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2005–2008; his career began in 1999, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2008	LAD/SD	25	22.1	2	3	26	13	19	12	5.24	5.37	1.70	7.7	4.8	121	124	-0.2
2007	STL	16	18.2	0	1	22	10	16	8	4.82	4.36	1.61	7.7	3.9	108	98	0.1
2006	STL	5	6.1	0	1	5	2	5	0	2.84	2.04	0.79	7.1	0.0	63	45	0.2
2005	SD	10	11.0	0	0	17	10	10	5	8.18	4.93	2.00	8.2	4.1	191	115	-0.0

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2005–2008; his career began in 1999, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2008	LAD	1	1	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	—	0.0%	100.0%	.000	-0.3	-134	-0.0
2007	STL	1	1	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	—	0.0%	100.0%	.000	-0.3	-130	-0.0
2006	STL	1	1	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	—	0.0%	100.0%	.000	-0.3	-127	-0.0

Platoon splits

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

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2008. 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	41	34	9	1	6	10	.265	.375	.353	.330	24.4%
vs RHB	61	54	17	3	6	9	.315	.383	.500	.386	14.8%

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2008.

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 .263.

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter

SinkerFour-seamCurveballSplitterUnknown

Select a count to see exactly what Brian Falkenborg throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Sinker	33.4%	131	94.5	2,268	38.9%	8.8%	37	.270	.855
Four-Seam Fastball	31.9%	125	94.5	2,225	49.6%	25.7%	25	.320	.892
Curveball	25.8%	101	80.4	879	44.6%	28.6%	17	.235	.529
Splitter	4.6%	18	87.7	1,328	22.2%	11.1%	6	—	—
Unknown	3.1%	12	—	—	58.3%	12.5%	3	—	—

Brian Falkenborg'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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Brian Falkenborg

Similar players

Nearest 2008 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

C.J. WilsonTEX

ERA: 6.02
FIP: 5.48
SO: 41
WAR: -0.3

Very close

Matt GuerrierMIN

ERA: 5.19
FIP: 5.08
SO: 59
WAR: -0.3

Very close

David RiskeMIL

ERA: 5.31
FIP: 5.47
SO: 27
WAR: -0.3

Yasuhiko YabutaKC

ERA: 4.78
FIP: 5.23
SO: 25
WAR: -0.2

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.