Players · B · Pitcher · 2008 regular season

John Van Benschoten

Pittsburgh Pirates National League Central

Age: 28
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 215 lb
Number: #47

Born: April 14, 1980 in San Diego, CA, United States
MLB debut: August 18, 2004

dbWAR: -1.0
IP: 22.1
ERA: 10.48
FIP: 8.42
K/9: 8.5
FIP−: 195

John Van Benschoten was a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2008 he struck out 21 batters over 22.1 innings across 9 appearances, 5 of them starts, going 1-3. His ERA of 10.48 was 142.3% higher than the league average of 4.32 — the worst on his team, and the second worst among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 8.42 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 19.3% of swings (8.1% of every pitch he threw), walked 16.0% of the batters he faced and struck out 16.8%. His -0.8 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.

FIP8.42

K/98.5

WHIP2.55

WAR-.8

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2007–2008; his career began in 2004, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.

																				Trend
2008	PIT	9	5	22.1	1	3	0	37	26	21	20	10.48	8.42	2.55	8.5	8.1	242	195	-0.8
2007	PIT	11	9	39.0	0	7	0	55	44	26	29	10.15	5.85	2.15	6.0	6.7	227	131	-0.2

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only. Seasons on file run 2007–2008; his career began in 2004, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.

																					Trend
2008	PIT	5	7	0	0	0	0	1	2	.000	.143	.000	.000	.000	14.3%	28.6%	.104	-1.3	-58	-0.0
2007	PIT	6	10	1	0	0	0	1	3	.143	.250	.286	.143	.250	10.0%	30.0%	.252	-0.7	44	0.1

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	68	55	23	6	10	14	.418	.522	.836	.570	20.6%
vs RHB	57	46	14	1	10	7	.304	.439	.457	.410	12.3%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2008.

Loading 4 batted balls…

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 John Van Benschoten throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamCurveballSliderSinkerChangeupCutter

Select a count to see exactly what John Van Benschoten throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	52.3%	251	91.0	1,879	41.8%	15.0%	41	.439	1.475
Curveball	13.5%	65	74.9	1,916	47.7%	35.7%	17	.294	.863
Slider	12.9%	62	84.3	1,100	30.6%	16.1%	22	.318	.920
Sinker	12.1%	58	90.9	2,348	39.7%	8.7%	11	—	—
Changeup	7.1%	34	84.6	1,500	38.2%	33.3%	9	—	—

John Van Benschoten'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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John Van Benschoten

Similar players

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

Wade LeBlancSD

ERA: 8.02
FIP: 8.19
SO: 14
WAR: -0.7

Loosely similar

Chuck JamesATL

ERA: 9.10
FIP: 8.36
SO: 22
WAR: -1.0

Loosely similar

Adam LoewenBAL

ERA: 8.02
FIP: 7.40
SO: 14
WAR: -0.5

Loosely similar

Steve TrachselBAL

ERA: 8.39
FIP: 7.72
SO: 16
WAR: -1.1

Loosely similar

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.