Players · C · Pitcher · 2017

Matt Cain

San Francisco Giants National League West

Age: 33
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 230 lb
Number: #18

Born: October 1, 1984 in Dothan, AL, United States
MLB debut: August 29, 2005

dbWAR: -.6
IP: 124.1
ERA: 5.43
FIP: 5.06
K/9: 5.4
FIP−: 116

Matt Cain was a starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. In 2017 he struck out 75 batters over 124.1 innings across 27 appearances, 23 of them starts, going 3-11. His ERA of 5.43 was 24.6% higher than the league average of 4.36 — 13th of 18 on his team, and 419th of 527 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.06 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 12.5% of swings (5.4% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.6% of the batters he faced and struck out 13.2%. His 0.3 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.

FIP5.06

K/95.4

WHIP1.66

WAR.3

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.


2017	SF	27	23	124.1	3	11	157	75	75	49	5.43	5.06	1.66	5.4	3.5	125	116	0.3
2016	SF	21	17	89.1	4	8	103	56	72	32	5.64	5.14	1.51	7.3	3.2	135	123	-0.0
2015	SF	13	11	60.2	2	4	71	39	41	20	5.79	5.54	1.50	6.1	3.0	146	140	-0.6

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2017	SF	20	34	5	0	2	20	.156	.156	.219	.063	.417	0.0%	58.8%	.161	-4.6	-12	0.1
2016	SF	15	28	2	1	5	17	.074	.074	.222	.148	.111	0.0%	60.7%	.124	-4.4	-34	-0.0
2015	SF	11	20	0	0	1	9	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	45.0%	.000	-5.0	-129	-0.3

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	252	218	68	6	29	32	.312	.390	.459	.366	12.7%
vs RHB	316	289	89	12	20	43	.308	.351	.491	.357	13.6%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2017.

Loading 14 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2017.

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 Matt Cain throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamCurveballSinkerChangeupSliderUnknown

Select a count to see exactly what Matt Cain throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	34.9%	728	89.3	2,402	44.1%	11.4%	162	.340	.961
Curveball	22.9%	477	74.5	2,657	40.3%	16.9%	127	.228	.648
Sinker	19.7%	411	89.0	2,369	44.3%	10.4%	108	.370	.962
Changeup	10.8%	225	83.0	1,589	33.8%	9.7%	56	.268	.686
Slider	10.6%	220	83.1	2,432	37.7%	13.0%	53	.340	.853
Unknown	0.9%	18	42.4	1,105	38.9%	12.5%	3	—	—

Matt Cain'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.

Head to head

Put Matt Cain beside up to three others.

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Matt Cain

Similar players

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

Robert GsellmanNYM

ERA: 5.19
FIP: 4.89
SO: 82
WAR: 0.5

Very close

Martín PérezTEX

ERA: 4.82
FIP: 4.65
SO: 115
WAR: 1.9

Very close

Kyle GibsonMIN

ERA: 5.07
FIP: 4.85
SO: 121
WAR: 1.1

Lucas SimsATL

ERA: 5.62
FIP: 5.07
SO: 44
WAR: 0.1

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.