Gardner Getting More Respect?

Written by Josh W. | 03 August 2010

Earlier today I looked at Gardner's splits page on Fangraphs and I noticed an interesting trend:

	BB %
March/April	9.5%
May	11.6%
June	12.5%
July	18.6%

My first instict was that Gardner was increasing his passivity at the plate. He usually takes a ton of pitches; he has the lowest Swing % among all qualified players in the majors this year, just ahead former Yankee Bobby Abreu. But this guess appears to be wrong:

	Swing %
March/April	30.4%
May	33.1%
June	31.2%
July	29.1%

He has basically been consistent in his approach this year. For this to be the case, then it would mean that pitchers were changing their approach to Garnder, and not the otherway around:

	Percentage of pitches thrown in the strike zone
March/April	53%
May	49.7%
June	43.5%
July	47.2%

It seems that pitchers have grown less willing to pound the zone against Gardner. And it's not as if Gardner has recently gained a reputation has a hacker, so it wouldn't make sense for pitchers to adjust their approach to throw him more balls. This in-season trend also seems to mirror a career long trend; when he made his debut in 2008, he was thrown strikes to 3 % more than the average batter (which is a lot) and recently he has been thrown much closer to a league average amount (though still about 1% above average).

Does the fact that pitchers are pounding the zone less often against Gardner mean that they respect him more? Maybe. And if they don't, they should. He is fourth in wRC+ among AL leftfielders with at least 250 PA's this season, an impressive feat.