Players · M · Pitcher · 2018

Brandon McCarthy

Age: 35
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 8"
Weight: 225 lb

Born: July 7, 1983 in Glendale, CA, United States
MLB debut: May 22, 2005

dbWAR: 2.6
IP: 78.2
ERA: 4.92
FIP: 4.79
K/9: 7.4
FIP−: 115

Brandon McCarthy was a starting pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. In 2018 he struck out 65 batters over 78.2 innings across 15 appearances, 15 of them starts, going 6-3. His ERA of 4.92 was 18.6% higher than the league average of 4.15 — the worst on his team, and 387th of 530 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.79 FIP suggests the ERA was no fluke. He missed bats on 16.7% of swings (8.1% of every pitch he threw), walked 6.2% of the batters he faced and struck out 19.2%. 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, 2018.

FIP4.79

K/97.4

WHIP1.46

WAR.4

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.


2018	ATL	15	15	78.2	6	3	94	43	65	21	4.92	4.79	1.46	7.4	2.4	119	115	0.4
2017	LAD	19	16	92.2	6	4	89	41	72	27	3.98	3.28	1.25	7.0	2.6	91	75	2.1
2016	LAD	10	9	40.0	2	3	29	22	44	26	4.95	3.70	1.38	9.9	5.8	118	88	0.6
2015	LAD	4	4	23.0	3	0	24	15	29	4	5.87	6.22	1.22	11.3	1.6	148	157	-0.4

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2018	ATL	15	31	3	2	0	19	.103	.103	.172	.069	.300	0.0%	61.3%	.118	-5.0	-37	-0.0
2017	LAD	15	28	1	0	3	16	.043	.154	.043	.000	.143	10.7%	57.1%	.116	-4.9	-43	-0.1
2016	LAD	8	15	0	1	2	6	.000	.133	.000	.000	.000	13.3%	40.0%	.093	-2.7	-58	-0.1
2015	LAD	4	9	0	1	1	5	.000	.143	.000	.000	.000	11.1%	55.6%	.102	-1.5	-53	-0.0

Platoon splits

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

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2018. 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	155	139	38	8	15	31	.273	.342	.496	.362	20.0%
vs RHB	185	175	56	7	6	34	.320	.343	.497	.362	18.4%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2018.

Loading 12 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2018.

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 .247.

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter

SinkerCutterCurveballSliderFour-seam

Select a count to see exactly what Brandon McCarthy throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Sinker	37.0%	449	92.5	2,115	47.4%	12.6%	110	.291	.775
Cutter	31.4%	382	91.4	2,206	46.9%	18.4%	99	.273	.816
Curveball	23.5%	286	80.2	2,620	45.1%	18.9%	76	.355	.977
Slider	7.0%	85	85.4	2,350	38.8%	25.5%	29	.276	.793
Four-Seam Fastball	0.8%	10	91.9	2,145	50.0%	0.0%	2	—	—

Brandon McCarthy'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 Brandon McCarthy beside up to three others.

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Brandon McCarthy

Similar players

Nearest 2018 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Sam GaviglioTOR

ERA: 5.31
FIP: 4.69
SO: 105
WAR: 0.6

Very close

Ian KennedyKC

ERA: 4.66
FIP: 4.61
SO: 105
WAR: 0.9

Very close

Matt HarveyCIN

ERA: 4.94
FIP: 4.57
SO: 131
WAR: 1.1

Very close

Jason VargasNYM

ERA: 5.77
FIP: 5.02
SO: 84
WAR: 0.0

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.