Players · H · Pitcher · 2021

J.A. Happ

Age: 39
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 205 lb

Born: October 19, 1982 in Peru, IL, United States
MLB debut: June 30, 2007

dbWAR: 12.4
IP: 152.1
ERA: 5.79
FIP: 5.13
K/9: 7.2
FIP−: 120

J.A. Happ was a starting pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. In 2021 he struck out 122 batters over 152.1 innings across 30 appearances, 30 of them starts, going 10-8. His ERA of 5.79 was 35.7% higher than the league average of 4.27 — 16th of 20 on his team, and 470th of 567 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.13 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 19.5% of swings (9.3% of every pitch he threw), walked 7.2% of the batters he faced and struck out 18.2%. 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, 2021.

FIP5.13

K/97.2

WHIP1.48

WAR.4

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.


2021	MIN/STL	30	30	152.1	10	8	177	98	122	48	5.79	5.13	1.48	7.2	2.8	136	120	0.4
2020	NYY	9	9	49.1	2	2	37	19	42	15	3.47	4.57	1.05	7.7	2.7	78	103	0.6
2019	NYY	31	30	161.1	12	8	160	88	140	49	4.91	5.22	1.30	7.8	2.7	109	116	0.5
2018	TOR/NYY	31	31	177.2	17	6	150	72	193	51	3.65	3.98	1.13	9.8	2.6	88	96	2.4
2017	TOR	25	25	145.1	10	11	145	57	142	46	3.53	3.76	1.31	8.8	2.8	81	86	2.7
2016	TOR	32	32	195.0	20	4	168	69	163	60	3.18	3.96	1.17	7.5	2.8	76	94	3.0
2015	SEA/PIT	32	31	172.0	11	8	173	69	151	45	3.61	3.41	1.27	7.9	2.4	91	86	3.0

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2021	STL	9	15	0	1	5	.000	.067	.000	.000	.000	6.7%	33.3%	.048	-3.4	-91	-0.1
2019	NYY	2	4	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-1.1	-126	-0.1
2018	TOR	2	7	2	1	3	.333	.429	.333	.000	.667	14.3%	42.9%	.352	+0.2	125	0.1
2017	TOR	1	2	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	50.0%	.000	-0.5	-124	-0.0
2016	TOR	3	10	2	0	3	.286	.286	.286	.000	.500	0.0%	30.0%	.251	-0.6	50	0.1
2015	PIT/SEA	12	27	2	1	13	.087	.125	.087	.000	.200	3.7%	48.1%	.103	-4.6	-51	-0.1

Platoon splits

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

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2021. 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	142	132	33	3	8	33	.250	.298	.371	.294	23.2%
vs RHB	530	484	144	27	40	89	.298	.352	.548	.381	16.8%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 9 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2021.

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 .243.

Pitch sequencing

What J.A. Happ throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamSinkerSliderChangeupCurveball

Select a count to see exactly what J.A. Happ throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	54.0%	1,443	91.0	2,297	50.8%	20.4%	295	.268	.894
Sinker	17.7%	472	89.1	2,077	38.6%	15.3%	140	.314	.766
Slider	15.1%	403	83.0	2,227	39.5%	22.8%	81	.296	.873
Changeup	12.0%	322	86.1	1,653	28.9%	18.7%	91	.297	.763
Curveball	1.3%	34	76.2	2,230	35.3%	20.0%	9	—	—

J.A. Happ'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

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J.A. Happ

Similar players

Nearest 2021 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Patrick CorbinWSH

ERA: 5.82
FIP: 5.41
SO: 143
WAR: -0.2

Very close

Jordan LylesTEX

ERA: 5.15
FIP: 5.34
SO: 146
WAR: -0.1

Very close

Carlos CarrascoNYM

ERA: 6.04
FIP: 5.22
SO: 50
WAR: 0.0

Very close

Bruce ZimmermannBAL

ERA: 5.04
FIP: 5.38
SO: 56
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.