Players · B · Pitcher · 2014 regular season

Heath Bell

Age: 37
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 235 lb
Number: #21

Born: September 29, 1977 in Oceanside, CA, United States
MLB debut: August 24, 2004

dbWAR: 10.2
IP: 17.1
ERA: 7.27
FIP: 4.57
K/9: 6.2
FIP−: 122

Heath Bell was a relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. In 2014 he struck out 12 batters over 17.1 innings across 13 appearances, going 1-1. His ERA of 7.27 was 94.3% higher than the league average of 3.74. Stripping out defence, his 4.57 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 18.9% of swings (7.1% of every pitch he threw), walked 9.1% of the batters he faced and struck out 13.6%. His -0.1 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, 2014 regular season.

FIP4.57

K/96.2

WHIP1.85

WAR-.1

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2005–2014; his career began in 2004, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2014	TB	13	17.1	1	1	0	24	14	12	8	7.27	4.57	1.85	6.2	4.2	194	122	-0.1
2013	AZ	69	65.2	5	2	15	74	30	72	16	4.11	4.10	1.37	9.9	2.2	106	106	0.2
2012	MIA	73	63.2	4	5	19	70	36	59	29	5.09	3.72	1.55	8.3	4.1	127	93	0.6
2011	SD	64	62.2	3	4	43	51	17	51	21	2.44	3.23	1.15	7.3	3.0	62	82	0.8
2010	SD	67	70.0	6	1	47	56	15	86	28	1.93	2.05	1.20	11.1	3.6	47	50	2.0
2009	SD	68	69.2	6	4	42	54	21	79	24	2.71	2.42	1.12	10.2	3.1	63	56	1.8
2008	SD	74	78.0	6	6	0	66	31	71	28	3.58	3.34	1.21	8.2	3.2	83	77	1.2
2007	SD	81	93.2	6	4	2	60	21	102	30	2.02	2.50	0.96	9.8	2.9	45	56	2.4
2006	NYM	22	37.0	0	0	0	51	21	35	11	5.11	4.25	1.68	8.5	2.7	113	94	0.3
2005	NYM	42	46.2	1	3	0	56	29	43	13	5.59	2.91	1.48	8.3	2.5	130	68	1.0

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2005–2014; his career began in 2004, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2010	SD	1	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-0.3	-129	-0.0
2009	SD	1	1	0	—	—	—	—	—	0.0%	0.0%	—	—	—	0.0
2006	NYM	1	1	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	—	0.0%	100.0%	.000	-0.3	-129	-0.0
2005	NYM	3	3	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	33.3%	.000	-0.8	-127	-0.0

Platoon splits

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

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2014. 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	52	43	12	1	6	8	.279	.385	.419	.357	15.4%
vs RHB	36	31	12	0	2	4	.387	.457	.484	.423	11.1%

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter

SinkerCurveballFour-seamSplitterChangeup

Select a count to see exactly what Heath Bell throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Sinker	37.5%	132	91.1	1,941	42.4%	11.8%	31	.258	.782
Curveball	28.7%	101	80.5	891	48.5%	25.0%	20	.350	.731
Four-Seam Fastball	14.8%	52	92.1	2,120	34.6%	25.0%	11	—	—
Splitter	10.2%	36	86.4	754	30.6%	26.7%	10	—	—
Changeup	7.7%	27	82.5	837	37.0%	10.0%	2	—	—

Heath Bell'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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Heath Bell

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.