Players · C · Pitcher · 2016

Joel De La Cruz

Age: 27
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 240 lb

Born: June 9, 1989 in Haina, Dominican Republic
MLB debut: June 29, 2016

dbWAR: -.1
IP: 62.2
ERA: 4.88
FIP: 5.19
K/9: 5.3
FIP−: 124

Joel De La Cruz was a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. In 2016 he struck out 37 batters over 62.2 innings across 22 appearances, going 0-7. His ERA of 4.88 was 16.5% higher than the league average of 4.19 — 14th of 24 on his team, and 360th of 512 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.19 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 20.2% of swings (9.8% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.0% of the batters he faced and struck out 13.4%. His -0.2 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, 2016.

FIP5.19

K/95.3

WHIP1.39

WAR-.2

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																				Trend
2016	ATL	22	9	62.2	0	7	0	65	34	37	22	4.88	5.19	1.39	5.3	3.2	117	124	-0.2	—

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

																					Trend
2016	ATL	11	18	3	0	1	0	0	8	.188	.188	.188	.000	.375	0.0%	44.4%	.164	-2.3	-6	0.0	—

Platoon splits

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

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2016. 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	135	123	32	5	10	16	.260	.319	.455	.335	11.9%
vs RHB	141	124	33	5	12	21	.266	.333	.476	.350	14.9%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2016.

Loading 9 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2016.

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 .255.

Pitch sequencing

What Joel De La Cruz 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 Joel De La Cruz throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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


Sinker	50.0%	504	91.4	1,849	40.5%	12.3%	122	.344	1.007
Slider	24.4%	246	86.0	684	44.7%	24.8%	62	.194	.634
Changeup	23.9%	241	84.5	1,613	42.7%	29.3%	63	.175	.511
Four-Seam Fastball	1.5%	15	91.7	1,391	20.0%	0.0%	0	—	—

Joel De La Cruz'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 Joel De La Cruz beside up to three others.

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Joel De La Cruz

Similar players

Nearest 2016 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Clay BuchholzBOS

ERA: 4.78
FIP: 5.06
SO: 93
WAR: 0.1

Very close

Dillon GeeKC

ERA: 4.68
FIP: 5.25
SO: 89
WAR: -0.3

Very close

Tyler WilsonBAL

ERA: 5.27
FIP: 4.94
SO: 55
WAR: 0.0

Very close

Mike Wright Jr.BAL

ERA: 5.79
FIP: 5.30
SO: 50
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.