Players · L · Pitcher · 2019

Francisco Liriano

Pittsburgh Pirates National League Central

Age: 36
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 220 lb

Born: October 26, 1983 in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic
MLB debut: September 5, 2005

dbWAR: 6.0
IP: 70.0
ERA: 3.47
FIP: 4.53
K/9: 8.1
FIP−: 101

Francisco Liriano was a relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2019 he struck out 63 batters over 70.0 innings across 69 appearances, going 5-3. His ERA of 3.47 was 23.0% lower than the league average of 4.51 — the third best on his team, and 114th of 545 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.53 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 30.4% of swings (14.5% of every pitch he threw), walked 11.6% of the batters he faced and struck out 20.9%. His 0.4 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, 2019.

FIP4.53

K/98.1

WHIP1.36

WAR.4

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.


2019	PIT	69	0	70.0	5	3	60	27	63	35	3.47	4.53	1.36	8.1	4.5	77	101	0.4
2018	DET	27	26	133.2	5	12	127	68	110	73	4.58	5.11	1.50	7.4	4.9	110	123	0.0
2017	HOU/TOR	38	18	97.0	6	7	105	61	85	53	5.66	4.64	1.63	7.9	4.9	130	107	0.4
2016	PIT/TOR	31	29	163.0	8	13	157	85	168	85	4.69	4.89	1.48	9.3	4.7	112	117	0.6
2015	PIT	31	31	186.2	12	7	155	70	205	70	3.38	3.19	1.21	9.9	3.4	85	80	3.8

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2019	PIT	2	2	1	0	0	1	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	.000	1.000	50.0%	0.0%	.792	+0.8	418	0.1
2018	DET	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-0.5	-122	-0.0
2016	PIT	21	42	12	1	5	0	16	.286	.286	.381	.095	.440	0.0%	38.1%	.288	-1.1	77	0.4
2015	PIT	27	67	11	1	7	0	28	.169	.169	.246	.077	.278	0.0%	41.8%	.180	-7.3	4	0.2

Platoon splits

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

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2019. 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	88	73	14	2	14	22	.192	.330	.329	.300	25.0%
vs RHB	214	187	46	6	22	41	.246	.329	.401	.315	19.2%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2019.

Loading 1 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2019.

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 .252.

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter

SinkerSliderChangeupFour-seam

Select a count to see exactly what Francisco Liriano throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Sinker	35.1%	398	93.0	2,047	40.5%	10.1%	96	.302	.902
Slider	30.3%	344	87.0	2,289	48.3%	42.8%	77	.143	.481
Changeup	26.0%	295	87.0	1,682	44.7%	42.6%	73	.233	.663
Four-Seam Fastball	8.6%	98	92.9	2,075	42.9%	13.2%	13	—	—

Francisco Liriano'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 Francisco Liriano beside up to three others.

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Francisco Liriano

Similar players

Nearest 2019 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Michel BaezSD

ERA: 3.03
FIP: 4.36
SO: 28
WAR: 0.2

Very close

Tyler ChatwoodCHC

ERA: 3.76
FIP: 4.28
SO: 74
WAR: 0.7

Very close

Sean NewcombATL

ERA: 3.16
FIP: 4.24
SO: 65
WAR: 0.6

Very close

Steve CishekCHC

ERA: 2.95
FIP: 4.54
SO: 57
WAR: 0.3

Very close

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.