Players · Y · Pitcher · 2008 regular season

Keiichi Yabu

San Francisco Giants National League West

Age: 40
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 220 lb
Number: #22

Born: September 28, 1968 in Mie, Japan
MLB debut: April 9, 2005

dbWAR: .8
IP: 68.0
ERA: 3.57
FIP: 4.06
K/9: 6.4
FIP−: 94

Keiichi Yabu was a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. In 2008 he struck out 48 batters over 68.0 innings across 60 appearances, going 3-6. His ERA of 3.57 was 17.4% lower than the league average of 4.32 — 4th of 16 on his team, and 142nd of 482 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.06 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 20.4% of swings (9.0% of every pitch he threw), walked 10.6% of the batters he faced and struck out 15.9%. His 0.6 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.

FIP4.06

K/96.4

WHIP1.40

WAR.6

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only.

																				Trend
2008	SF	60	0	68.0	3	6	0	63	27	48	32	3.57	4.06	1.40	6.4	4.2	83	94	0.6
2005	OAK	40	0	58.0	4	0	1	64	29	44	26	4.50	4.61	1.55	6.8	4.0	105	107	0.2

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only.

																					Trend
2008	SF	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.500	.000	.000	.000	50.0%	0.0%	.365	+0.1	120	0.0
2005	OAK	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-0.3	-123	-0.0

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	110	93	33	1	15	13	.355	.450	.452	.399	11.8%
vs RHB	192	166	30	2	17	35	.181	.284	.265	.263	18.2%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2008.

Loading 1 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 Keiichi Yabu throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamCurveballCutterSliderSinkerChangeupUnknownIN

Select a count to see exactly what Keiichi Yabu throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	44.5%	502	89.9	1,799	38.6%	15.0%	105	.324	.870
Curveball	12.2%	138	75.6	1,769	42.0%	25.0%	16	.188	.847
Cutter	12.0%	136	88.3	1,261	50.7%	20.3%	32	.313	.833
Slider	10.8%	122	83.6	810	41.0%	28.4%	43	.023	.090
Sinker	8.3%	94	90.3	2,329	46.8%	7.7%	21	.381	.863
Changeup	8.1%	92	83.6	1,120	39.1%	40.8%	32	.156	.393
Unknown	2.8%	32	—	—	40.6%	18.8%	10	—	—
Intentional Ball	1.2%	13	74.8	1,503	0.0%	—	0	—	—

Keiichi Yabu'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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Keiichi Yabu

Similar players

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

Jeff BennettATL

ERA: 3.70
FIP: 4.07
SO: 68
WAR: 0.9

Very close

Salomon TorresMIL

ERA: 3.49
FIP: 4.22
SO: 51
WAR: 0.5

Very close

Chad DurbinPHI

ERA: 2.87
FIP: 3.77
SO: 63
WAR: 1.1

Very close

Lance CormierBAL

ERA: 4.02
FIP: 4.04
SO: 46
WAR: 0.7

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.