Players · B · Pitcher · 2017 regular season

Joe Blanton

Washington Nationals National League East

Age: 37
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 225 lb
Number: #56

Born: December 11, 1980 in Nashville, TN, United States
MLB debut: September 21, 2004

dbWAR: 19.0
IP: 44.1
ERA: 5.68
FIP: 5.28
K/9: 7.9
FIP−: 121

Joe Blanton was a relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals. In 2017 he struck out 39 batters over 44.1 innings across 51 appearances, going 2-4. His ERA of 5.68 was 30.4% higher than the league average of 4.36 — 15th of 17 on his team, and 440th of 527 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.28 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 28.2% of swings (14.0% of every pitch he threw), walked 6.7% of the batters he faced and struck out 20.0%. 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, 2017 regular season.

FIP5.28

K/97.9

WHIP1.49

WAR-.2

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below. Seasons on file run 2005–2017; his career began in 2004, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2017	WSH	51	0	44.1	2	4	0	53	28	39	13	5.68	5.28	1.49	7.9	2.6	130	121	-0.2
2016	LAD	75	0	80.0	7	2	0	55	22	80	26	2.48	3.33	1.01	9.0	2.9	59	80	1.2
2015	PIT/KC	36	4	76.0	7	2	2	69	24	79	16	2.84	2.92	1.12	9.4	1.9	72	74	1.4
2013	LAA	28	20	132.2	2	14	0	180	89	108	34	6.04	5.12	1.61	7.3	2.3	156	132	-0.7
2012	PHI/LAD	31	30	191.0	10	13	0	207	100	166	34	4.71	3.91	1.26	7.8	1.6	117	97	2.4
2011	PHI	11	8	41.1	1	2	0	52	23	35	9	5.01	3.63	1.48	7.6	2.0	127	92	0.6
2010	PHI	29	28	175.2	9	6	0	206	94	134	43	4.82	4.34	1.42	6.9	2.2	118	106	1.4
2009	PHI	31	31	195.1	12	8	0	198	88	163	59	4.05	4.45	1.32	7.5	2.7	94	103	2.0
2008	OAK/PHI	33	33	197.2	9	12	0	211	103	111	66	4.69	4.52	1.40	5.1	3.0	108	104	1.8
2007	OAK	34	34	230.0	14	10	0	240	101	140	40	3.95	3.50	1.22	5.5	1.6	88	78	4.9
2006	OAK	32	31	194.1	16	12	0	241	104	107	58	4.82	4.16	1.54	5.0	2.7	106	92	2.9
2005	OAK	33	33	201.1	12	12	0	178	79	116	67	3.53	4.43	1.22	5.2	3.0	82	103	2.1

Batting Regular season


2017	WSH	1	1	0	0	1	0	—	1.000	—	—	—	100.0%	0.0%	.710	+0.3	358	0.0
2015	PIT/KC	4	4	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	25.0%	.000	-1.0	-125	-0.1
2013	LAA	3	6	1	0	0	2	.167	.167	.167	.000	.250	0.0%	33.3%	.149	-0.8	-18	-0.0
2012	PHI/LAD	28	66	4	1	3	26	.073	.136	.073	.000	.138	4.5%	39.4%	.108	-10.9	-46	-0.2
2011	PHI	7	12	2	2	0	3	.182	.182	.182	.000	.250	0.0%	25.0%	.163	-1.5	-9	-0.0
2010	PHI	27	67	7	1	1	24	.119	.161	.119	.000	.200	1.5%	35.8%	.137	-10.0	-30	-0.2
2009	PHI	30	69	7	1	4	21	.127	.200	.127	.000	.206	5.8%	30.4%	.166	-9.4	-14	0.0
2008	PHI/OAK	13	24	1	1	0	11	.059	.056	.059	.000	.143	0.0%	45.8%	.050	-5.6	-93	-0.2
2007	OAK	2	5	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	60.0%	.000	-1.4	-134	-0.1
2006	OAK	2	3	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	33.3%	.000	-0.8	-128	-0.0
2005	OAK	2	4	1	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.000	.333	0.0%	0.0%	.298	-0.1	77	0.0

Separate from the regular season

Postseason Postseason

Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.

Postseason pitching

Postseason Joe Blanton's postseason pitching, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	GS	IP	W	L	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	WHIP	K/9
2016 Post	LAD	Postseason total	7	0	8.0	1	2	8	7	3	3	8	7.88	1.38	9.0
		NLDS	4	0	5.0	1	0	1	0	0	1	5	0.00	0.40	9.0
		NLCS	3	0	3.0	0	2	7	7	3	2	3	21.00	3.00	9.0
2011 Post	PHI	NLDS	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.0
2010 Post	PHI	NLCS	1	1	4.2	0	0	5	3	0	1	3	5.79	1.29	5.8
2009 Post	PHI	Postseason total	4	2	15.2	0	0	15	9	2	4	10	5.17	1.21	5.7
		NLDS	2	0	3.2	0	0	4	2	1	0	1	4.91	1.09	2.5
		NLCS	1	1	6.0	0	0	6	3	1	2	2	4.50	1.33	3.0
		World Series	1	1	6.0	0	0	5	4	0	2	7	6.00	1.17	10.5
2008 Post	PHI	Postseason total	3	3	17.0	2	0	16	6	3	6	18	3.18	1.29	9.5
		NLDS	1	1	6.0	1	0	5	1	1	0	7	1.50	0.83	10.5
		NLCS	1	1	5.0	0	0	7	3	0	4	4	5.40	2.20	7.2
		World Series	1	1	6.0	1	0	4	2	2	2	7	3.00	1.00	10.5
2006 Post	OAK	ALCS	1	0	2.0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0.00	1.00	9.0
2005–2017		Postseason total · 6 Octobers	17	6	48.1	3	2	44	25	8	16	41	4.66	1.24	7.6

Postseason batting

Postseason Joe Blanton's postseason batting, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	PA	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2010 Post	PHI	NLCS	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
2009 Post	PHI	Postseason total	3	5	5	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLDS	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
		World Series	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
2008 Post	PHI	Postseason total	3	8	8	1	1	1	1	6	.125	.125	.500	.625
		NLDS	1	3	3	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
		World Series	1	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	.333	.333	1.333	1.667
2005–2017		Postseason total · 3 Octobers	7	15	14	1	1	1	1	10	.071	.071	.286	.357

Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.

Platoon splits

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

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2017. 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	72	65	21	3	6	13	.323	.389	.600	.416	18.1%
vs RHB	123	114	32	7	7	26	.281	.320	.500	.344	21.1%

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2017.

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter

SliderFour-seamChangeupCurveballSinker

Select a count to see exactly what Joe Blanton throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Slider	34.1%	261	86.1	2,351	42.9%	28.9%	73	.247	.728
Four-Seam Fastball	28.2%	216	90.2	2,151	51.4%	20.3%	48	.417	1.265
Changeup	15.4%	118	85.4	1,805	39.0%	43.3%	32	.219	.546
Curveball	11.9%	91	79.4	2,479	44.0%	8.3%	12	—	—
Sinker	10.3%	79	90.4	2,176	57.0%	38.1%	14	—	—

Joe Blanton'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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Joe Blanton

Similar players

Nearest 2017 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Buddy BoshersMIN

ERA: 4.89
FIP: 5.19
SO: 28
WAR: -0.1

Very close

Asher WojciechowskiCIN

ERA: 6.50
FIP: 5.18
SO: 64
WAR: -0.1

Mike Wright Jr.BAL

ERA: 5.76
FIP: 4.72
SO: 28
WAR: 0.1

Tony SippHOU

ERA: 5.79
FIP: 5.22
SO: 39
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.