Inge Showing Patience

We all know that Brandon Inge is off to a tremendous start offensively. A line of .328/.442/.688 with 7 homers in the first month is not what we expected from Inge. We know about his new stance and approach but I also wanted to take a look at the fangraphs statistics to get a clearer picture of what's happening.

Table 1 below looks at Inge's plate discipline. The 2009 sample is small but he is swinging at smaller percentage of pitches outside the strike zone (OSWING%) this year. It was as high as 23.3% in 2007, fell to 20.4% last year and is down to 18.6% this year. He is also swinging at a smaller percentage of pitches inside the zone (ZSWING%). After swinging at over 60% of pitches in the zone the last two years, he is down to 56.5% so far in 2009. When he does swing he is making contact more frequently (75.5% in 2008 and 78.8% in 2009).

Table 1: Plate Discipline Stats - Brandon Inge

Year	OSwing%	ZSwing%	Contact%
2007	23.3	63.0	74.4
2008	20.4	60.1	75.8
2009	18.6	56.5	78.8

Table 2 shows that the the result of his increased patience is more walks and fewer strikeouts. He walked in 8.5% of his plate appearances in 2007, 11.0% in 2008 and 14.7% this year. His strikeouts have gone in the opposite direction (29.5% in 2007, 27.1% in 2008 and 20.3% in 2009).

Table 2 - Walks and Strikeouts - Brandon Inge

Year	BB%	K%	K/BB
2007	8.5	29.5	3.5
2008	11.0	27.1	2.5
2009	14.7	20.3	1.4

Why all the home runs? The batted ball data in Table 3 so that he is actually hitting fewer balls in the air so far this year. His ground ball percentage is up from 37.1% last year to 45.1% this year. His line drive percentage is down (16.4% in 2008 and 9.8% this year). His Fly ball percentage is about the same but his home run per fly ball is way up (9.2% last year to 30.4% this year). So, he's hitting the ball in the air less but when he does hit one, it really goes.

Table 3 - Batted Ball Data - Brandon Inge

Year	LD%	GB%	FB%	HR/FB
2007	22.0	37.0	40.9	9.5
2008	16.4	37.1	46.5	9.2
2009	9.8	45.1	45.1	30.4

It's too early to make any conclusions but the lower swing percentage along with more walks and fewer strikeouts is interesting and worth watching. His home run rate is fluky but getting back to his 14.3% HR/FB rate in 2006 is certainly possible.