Baseball Prospectus: Lee's tendencies actually play well in Philly
While most of the talk has been about how perfect a fit the ground-balling Roy Halladay is for the Phillies, Cliff Lee should also be a big boost to them. While not a dominant ground-ball pitcher, he's better about it than he used to be, and does keep the ball in the park and runners off of the bases, both of which should help him in cozy Citizen's Bank Park. Lee is coming from a park that slightly enhances the production of righties and is neutral for lefties, and is moving into the less difficult league. CBP does boost homers for right-handers, but overall it plays neutral for them since it cuts down on everything else. Lee also shuts down left-handed batters, holding them to a line of .216/.232/.275 this year and a relatively harmless .272/.299/.362 in '08. While CBP makes things easier for lefties, Lee's performance against them and his own handedness should negate that. -Marc Normandin
Cliff Lee is moving to Philadelphia and a ballpark that tends to punish fly-ball pitchers. Lee has fly-ball tendencies (54.5 pct of balls in play), but when the ball goes into the air, he keeps it in the park. A look at the pitchers with the lowest fly-ball to home run percentage for pitchers with a minimum 900 batters faced (2008-09):
Player/Team HR/FB Pct.
Tim Lincecum, SF 3.3
Cliff Lee, CLE 3.4
Jair Jurrjens, ATL 3.8
Ubaldo Jimenez, COL 4.0
Mike Pelfrey, NYM 4.1
Cliff Lee's career record against National League teams - 12-2, 3.18 ERA
Comments
While most of the talk has been about how perfect a fit the ground-balling Roy Halladay is for the Phillies, Cliff Lee should also be a big boost to them. While not a dominant ground-ball pitcher, he's better about it than he used to be, and does keep the ball in the park and runners off of the bases, both of which should help him in cozy Citizen's Bank Park. Lee is coming from a park that slightly enhances the production of righties and is neutral for lefties, and is moving into the less difficult league. CBP does boost homers for right-handers, but overall it plays neutral for them since it cuts down on everything else. Lee also shuts down left-handed batters, holding them to a line of .216/.232/.275 this year and a relatively harmless .272/.299/.362 in '08. While CBP makes things easier for lefties, Lee's performance against them and his own handedness should negate that. -Marc Normandin
Cliff Lee is moving to Philadelphia and a ballpark that tends to punish fly-ball pitchers. Lee has fly-ball tendencies (54.5 pct of balls in play), but when the ball goes into the air, he keeps it in the park. A look at the pitchers with the lowest fly-ball to home run percentage for pitchers with a minimum 900 batters faced (2008-09):
Player/Team HR/FB Pct.
Tim Lincecum, SF 3.3
Cliff Lee, CLE 3.4
Jair Jurrjens, ATL 3.8
Ubaldo Jimenez, COL 4.0
Mike Pelfrey, NYM 4.1
Cliff Lee's career record against National League teams - 12-2, 3.18 ERA