So far the 2014 postseason has been full of various story lines, most notably the Kansas City Royals’ run to the World Series with pitching and defense, however another storyline has been the development of Madison Bumgarner into a true ace. In his two previous postseasons, Bumgarner had mixed results. He was successful in 2010 winning two of three starts with a 2.18 ERA, however, 2012 was a much different story for the big lefty as he had a 6.00 ERA in 3 starts. In 2014, Bumgarner has been on a whole other level going 3-1 with a 1.40 ERA in his five starts. So what-if anything- has Bumgarner been doing differently in the 2014 postseason?
Looking at his peripherals paints a very interesting story about this postseason. Madison Bumgarner has a K/9 rate of 7.68 and a BB/9 rate of 1.40. The K/9 is over a half a strikeout lower than his career average of 8.46. Although the walk rate is much better than his career rate of 2.16 the drop in strikeouts does not coincide with the immense success he has been having. Another, interesting statistic is that this postseason Bumgarner has only induced ground balls on 29.7% of the balls that have been put in play against him, which is significantly lower than his career rate of 46.2%. A change that significant, no matter how small the sample size, seems to dictate a change in approach on the mound.
Bumgarner’s Pitch F/x data supports this possible change in approach.
| Season | FA% | FT% | FC% | SL% | CU% | CH% |
| 2009 | 60.90% | 1.90% | 2.60% | 26.30% | – | 5.80% |
| 2010 | 48.20% | 11.10% | – | 18.00% | 11.20% | 11.10% |
| 2011 | 27.60% | 27.60% | – | 28.20% | 10.90% | 5.10% |
| 2012 | 30.10% | 15.40% | – | 36.40% | 9.80% | 7.80% |
| 2013 | 27.00% | 12.60% | – | 36.80% | 13.30% | 9.70% |
| 2014 | 27.20% | 17.20% | – | 34.10% | 14.00% | 7.30% |
| 2014 Postseason | 32.70% | 23.40% | – | 27.90% | 13.90% | 2.10% |
As it can be seen Bumgarner’s pitch selection has changed slightly, using his slider less this postseason than in recent seasons, also increasing the usage of both his four seam fastball and his two seamer. This change in pitch selection could be a potential reason for the decrease of grounders and increase of flyballs this postseason but not a definitive reason. Additionally, an interesting trend seen in Bumgarner’s numbers is his velocity increase. This post season his four seam and two seam have averaged right around 93 MPH while his career average for the two pitches sits right around 91.5. The velocity increase could cause hitters to be later on his pitches and that could create more flyballs.
However, looking at his heat maps for his career versus the postseason could be the key to determining the difference in Bumgarner.
As it can been during his career prior to the 2014 postseason most of Bumgarner’s pitches have been spaced evenly throughout the zone throwing pitches to all spots in the strike zone almost evenly. However, looking at the same heat map for the 2014 postseason it looks like a significantly different pitcher.
In this postseason, the lefty Bumgarner has begun throwing more pitches up in the zone making up and in to a right hander his third most frequent pitch location. Additionally, Madison Bumgarner has been dominating his glove side of the plate; pitching in to righties more and away from lefties. He has thrown a significantly lower percentage of pitches to the left handed batter’s box side of the plate. This change could be the key reason behind the decrease of ground balls and increase in flyballs that Bumgarner has seen this postseason. Pitches up in the zone get hit in the air more often and pitches on the inner third of the plate tend to jam more hitters resulting again in more flyballs.
This postseason Bumgarner has been the only true ace from start to finish and while he has been an ace at different times in his career, he has completely reinvented himself as a pitcher. Bumgarner’s entire approach as a pitcher has been different this postseason and based off the incredible results he has seen, the change might be here to stay and 2015 could be a a long year for hitters facing the left-hander.
Thank you for reading. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld – and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest in sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
Have you tuned into Last Word On Sports Radio? LWOS is pleased to bring you 24/7 sports radio to your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. What are you waiting for?
Main Photo:
