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Christian Friedrich headshot

Players · F · Pitcher · 2016

Christian Friedrich

San Diego PadresNational League West
Age
29
B/T
R/L
Height
6' 4"
Weight
222 lb
Number
#53
Born
July 8, 1987 in Evanston, IL, United States
MLB debut
May 9, 2012
dbWAR
1.8
4 season(s)
IP
129.1
ERA
4.80
FIP
4.16
K/9
7.0
FIP−
99
100 = avg

Christian Friedrich was a starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres. In 2016 he struck out 100 batters over 129.1 innings across 24 appearances, 23 of them starts, going 5-12. His ERA of 4.80 was 14.6% higher than the league average of 4.19 — 8th of 18 on his team, and 346th of 512 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.16 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 19.3% of swings (8.9% of every pitch he threw), walked 9.2% of the batters he faced and struck out 17.6%. His 1.6 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, 2016.

FIP4.16
K/97.0
WHIP1.41
WAR1.6

WAR by season

1.60.80.01516

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2016SD2423129.1512013169100524.804.161.417.03.6115991.6
2015COL68058.1040753445255.254.041.716.93.91321020.5

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2016SD22432020323.054.125.054.000.1437.0%53.5%.096-7.7-52-0.2
2015COL23000000.000.000.000.000.0000.0%0.0%.000-0.8-109-0.0

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.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB123113274826.239.287.389.29521.1%
vs RHB44439210494474.265.339.408.32716.7%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2016.

Loading 17 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2016.

—————3 AB—2 AB——1 AB.0008 AB—3 AB—1 AB—4 AB—6 AB
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 Christian Friedrich throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter
SinkerSliderCurveballFour-seamChangeupIN

Select a count to see exactly what Christian Friedrich throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Sinker34.2%73189.42,23443.1%13.8%154.253.791
Slider19.5%41882.246149.0%31.0%127.181.541
Curveball18.5%39676.41,14544.2%21.5%73.329.749
Four-Seam Fastball14.4%30889.32,09643.2%9.3%73.356.851
Changeup12.9%27684.21,84942.8%18.4%78.244.767
Christian Friedrich'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 Christian Friedrich beside up to three others.

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Christian Friedrich

Similar players

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

Colin ReaSD
ERA
4.82
FIP
4.63
SO
80
WAR
0.7
Very close
Yordano VenturaKC
ERA
4.45
FIP
4.59
SO
144
WAR
1.6
Very close
Chad BettisCOL
ERA
4.79
FIP
4.26
SO
138
WAR
2.5
Very close
Jhoulys ChacínLAA
ERA
4.81
FIP
4.01
SO
119
WAR
1.6
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.