Jered Weaver's Real Home-Field Advantage By Jeff Sullivan - Editor It's not uncommon for baseball players to perform better at home than on the road. But Angel Stadium might, under certain circumstances, give Jered Weaver a particular edge. Follow @sbnbaseball on Twitter, and Like Baseball Nation on Facebook. Mar 21, 2012 - Like any good Mariners fan, I read a lot of stuff that's written about the Mariners. Most of it I don't need to have read, since little of it tells me anything I didn't already know, but that possibility that there's something in there keeps me reading. Tuesday, I read an article about the Mariners written by Peter Gammons. I'm not always wild about national journalists, but I find that Gammons is often worth my time. In columns, just as on Twitter, except for different reasons. Gammons wrote about Eric Wedge and the Mariners' coming wave of young pitching talent. Nothing super new. But then after that section, he tucked in something interesting. Quote: A number of Mariners players held their own game: Which of the Angels' starters would you least like to face? The poll ended with Jerome Williams and Jered Weaver in a dead heat.While that sounds a little absurd, I'm not a professional baseball hitter so what do I know? Besides, that's not what this article is about. This article is about something that came right after that: "Except," added another player, "when it's daylight in Anaheim, and Weaver is throwing out of the rockpile background."This caught my attention. It's pretty easy to see that Jered Weaver has taken advantage of playing in Angel Stadium over the course of his career. Over 84 home starts, he has a 2.70 ERA. Over 93 road starts, he has a 3.90 ERA. Angel Stadium is a run-suppressing ballpark that's hard on fly balls; Weaver frequently pitches in Angel Stadium, and allows a lot of fly balls. It's a good fit. But look at that Mariners player's quote again. This isn't just about Jered Weaver benefiting from Angel Stadium. This is about Jered Weaver allegedly benefiting from Angel Stadium in an additional and very specific way. This is about Jered Weaver allegedly benefiting from the rockpile background during the day. In case you aren't familiar with Angel Stadium, here's an image, from this source: Intuitively, we can see how that could be a distraction. The rockpile is off-center, but not by a lot. It's somewhat lightly colored, and presumably reflective to some degree. Weaver is a very lanky guy with long arms and an over-the-top delivery. But we can't investigate by intuition. I went through Weaver's career game logs and identified 16 home starts made in the day time. One was at 3:30pm, and all the others were at or around 1:00pm. I assumed that the weather was always nice, the sun always bright. That left 68 other home starts, almost all of which started around 7:00pm. The sample sizes here are different, but I think we have enough to make a comparison. When I put the numbers next to each other, my eyes opened wide. The numbers back up the anonymous Mariners player, and then some. Time Innings Batters ERA BB% K% HR% Contact% Day 113 444 1.51 6.5% 28% 1.1% 71% Night 444 1807 3.00 5.9% 21% 2.4% 79% Now, remember: 16 starts, and 113 innings. We have a pretty small sample when it comes to Jered Weaver home matinees. But the difference here is striking. His ERA in the day is half what it is at night. More meaningfully, his home runs are down, and his strikeouts are way up. The strikeout-rate increase is supported by a contact-rate decrease. What these numbers strongly suggest is that, indeed, batters have a hard time picking up the ball against Jered Weaver when the afternoon sun is shining and the rockpile looms behind him. Because of the rockpile's off-center location, I'd guess that lefties have a harder time with it than righties. While lefties make up a minority of the baseball population, Weaver has faced 52 percent lefties for his career. If the rockpile helps to neutralize them during the day, Weaver's ERA should plummet. In conclusion, we have nothing conclusive. It's possible this is all just sample-size variation. It's also possible that other pitchers show similar patterns, although at first glance, career Angel Ervin Santana does not. This is something that could stand to be studied more. But while we don't have a conclusion, we do have compelling evidence. It looks like Jered Weaver benefits to a significant degree from that rockpile in the afternoon. This isn't me asserting that he's overrated or trying to knock him down a peg - that doesn't interest me. I do think it was probably a good idea, though, for him to re-sign with the Angels for five years. He makes the Angels better, and, in a way, the Angels make him better, too. http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/3/21/2889028/jered-weaver-angels-stats
the AL West is now home to two of the most notorious cheats in all of baseball; Yu Darvish and Jered Weaver. #smh
Eric Wedge is a cool guy. The girls like him just fine. Young and old, it doesn't matter in the dark.
The story is interesting and all, but I'm going to need a more credible source than that minor league offense they have in Seattle.
Also, the ball in the pic above looks a little brown, maybe Weaver get it nice and dirty to help it blend in. I'm not saying he does this, I'm just trying to come up with explanations...
Someone Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Patface is Welches that Seattle is one of the hottest teams in spring training. I see you trembling.
Weavers motion also takes him WAY to the left(his right) it seems, based on the pic above and this video:
If you drew a line from the plate to the pitcher mound and out to dead center it wouldn't touch the rocks, BUT if you correct for Weavers crazy motion and assume the dude who complained was a left hander, you can see why it would only be weaver taking advantage of this. the line heads directly over there
I bet I could throw 2 scoreless innings against the Mariners, and I think I topped out at 71 MPH the last time I threw at that "See how hard you can throw a baseball" game at the fair.
These stats probably don't include B squad games. Doesn't surprise me that you would bend the statistics to fit your argument.
opened thread hoping to get material with which to blast Angel fans... nothing to be gleaned as far as whether or not Weaver actually is a bastard
Only a Mariners fan would be threatened by a left-handed throwing 71 MPH pitcher with a bad knee. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Note to self: sign Barry Zito to pitch against the Mariners.
They do this to all baseballs, they don't just use them fresh out of the box. They are covered in mud and dirtied before every game.
was hitting upper 80s on that piece of shit interactive pitching game at the ESPN zone, get on my level
Unfair man. It's not dump's fault no one has tweeted a joke that he can re-post about how offensively inept the Mariners are.
I fail to see how this is even remotely cheating. It would imagine it began as a random occurrence, he took notice, and began using it to his advantage. That makes him intelligent, not a cheater. Literally every MLB player would take advantage of something like that if they could.
Man, Chan Ho Park was such a beast in the Ken Griffey Jr. N64 games Was expecting you to call me a "junker"
