Fun with Splits: Batter's Counts

In the thin air of Coors, nothing gets out of the infield for Juan. In fact, only one ball made it past the pitcher's mound.

1. Grounded to pitcher. #340.
2. Sacrifice. #341.
3. Grounded to short. #342.
4. Grounded to pitcher. #343.

Pace: 534 outs.

Juan's 343 outs are still good for the major league lead by one over Rollins.

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Welcome to Fun with Juan Pierre's Splits Week. This week, we will be looking at individual lines on ESPN's Splits page for Juan Pierre. Scintillating information there.

Today, we look at his batter's counts.

For example, what count do you think is Juan's favorite for putting the ball in play?

If you said 0-1, you were right! Juan has 80 at-bats in which he put the ball in play on an 0-1 count, the most of any count. Juan has 26 hits with four doubles in this situation, leading to a .325/.325/.375/.700 record! Hey, he's slightly above his own average with a strike against him!

Not surprisingly, Juan does poorest with 2 strikes against him. Unfortunately, this happens a lot more often. In 221 plate appearances with an 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, or 3-2 count, Juan has 42 hits, 11 walks, and has been hit twice. That's .202/.248/.236. OPS of 484.

When does Juan do his best? Also not surprisingly, after 2-0, 3-0, and 3-1 counts. (You will be happy to know that Juan has not yet swung on a 3-0 count this year.) In a grand total of 16 plate appearances, Juan has four hits (including a double!) and an astounding 7 walks. In these situations, he is .444/.688/.555/1.243! As long as the pitchers don't throw strikes, Juan Pierre hits like Barry Bonds.

Unfortunately, those 2-0, 3-0, and 3-1 situations have only happened to Juan 16 times this year. Compared with, I'll remind you, the 221 plate appearances with two strikes.

More fun with splits tomorrow.