Good afternoon…

One of Jason Isringhausen’s problems this season is his diminishing ability to get hitters to swing and miss. He’s making good pitches, but isn’t finishing off hitters at the same rate. 

As always, I have statistics. 

Let’s take a look at Izzy’s career as a Cardinal in two areas: (1) the percentage of swings and misses, and (2) his strikeouts per batters faced:

Is he making hitters miss? Not as much as he once did.

The yearly percentage of swings and misses vs. Isringhausen:

2008:  16.9

2007:  22.9

2006:  21.9

2005:  24.5

2004:  24.8

2003:  25.2

2002:  26.2

Obviously, the rate is dropping.

Now, here’s Isringhausen’s rate of strikeouts per batters faced:

2008:  .159

2007:  .202

2006:  .202

2005:  .208

2004:  .231

2003:  .236

2002:  .265

Obviously, his K-rate is dropping, too.

What does it mean? Well, hitters (generally) are putting more balls in play against the STL closer. And that’s bad news for him, because the hitters are racking Isringhausen for a .304 batting average this season on balls put in play. That’s by far his career high as a Cardinal; the next-highest BA/BIP was .259, which occured way back in 2002, his first season with St. Louis.

Too much contact is not a good thing at this stage of Izzy’s career. But unless he can make the hitters start missing more than they are, the trend will likely continue.

 –B