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At the end of the 2011 season, Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo found the magic touch with the pitch that could make him a viable Cy Young candidate in coming seasons.

Other than two blips against the Cardinals (one in the regular season, one in the National League Championship Series), Gallardo was magnificent to close the year. In his last 11 starts, including the postseason, he posted a 3.00 ERA, with 90 strikeouts and 19 walks in 72 innings.

In the five-start span encompassing his last three regular-season appearances and two starts against the Diamondbacks in the NL Division Series, Gallardo struck out 50 hitters in 34 1/3 innings.

Gallardo’s success coincided with a change in the primary location of his curveball.

Gallardo was able to get his curveball to drop to a point just at or below the knees. Against both righties and lefties, he was able to spot the ball on or just off the outside corner as needed.

Check out the height of where the pitch landed in the heat maps atop this piece. Then, check out the results in the chart on the right.

Hitters couldn’t touch the pitch. The rate of swings that missed against it doubled from 32 percent to 64 percent over his last eight regular-season starts.

One of the reasons the Cardinals were successful against Gallardo in the NLCS was that he didn’t have his best curveball that day. They missed on only two of 12 swings and rapped three hits against it.

They were the fortunate ones. We’ll see if others will be as fortunate in 2012.

How will Gallardo fare in 2012? You tell us. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval is the heir apparent to Vladimir Guerrero and Ichiro Suzuki as the best bad-ball hitter in baseball. (Or maybe it's Salvador Perez.)

Sandoval’s bad-ball success was a huge key to his final 2011 numbers. He finished with a .328 batting average and 11 home runs in at-bats that ended with a pitch judged to be out of the strike zone by baseball’s Pitch F/X system.

Sandoval’s batting average ranked second-best in the majors and his homer total led the majors. It was a huge jump from his 2010 production, as noted in the chart on the right. Sandoval had the same number of hits against out-of-zone pitches in 2011 as he did in 2010. But he made 58 fewer outs.

At the top of this piece are heat maps, which show Sandoval’s bad-ball success from both the left and right sides.

See that big red patch off the outside corner in the image on the left? That’s a valuable area to Sandoval. It was worth 32 hits to him in 2011.

The one issue for Sandoval last season, one in which his defense improved significantly as well, was that he only played in 117 games. If he can maintain this kind of production for a full season, he could be an MVP candidate at year’s end.

What’s next for Sandoval in 2012? You tell us. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Alex Gordon had a breakout season in 2011, the kind that had been expected of him since his recall from the minor leagues. He starred for the Kansas City Royals both at bat (.303 BA, 23 HR, 87 RBIs) and in the field (winning a Gold Glove, largely because of his 20 outfield assists).

The biggest jump Gordon made was his performance against left-handed pitching. Gordon entered 2011 as a .215 career hitter against southpaws, but hit a solid .278 with 19 extra-base hits, including eight home runs.

One of Gordon’s primary weaknesses in dealing with lefties was how he handled soft stuff (curves, sliders, changeups) away. He eliminated that as an issue in 2011 in a big way.

Gordon was able to nearly double the rate at which he made contact on swings against those pitches, and the results increased exponentially, as noted in the chart on the right.

There aren’t many left-handed hitters who can hit that type of pitch from a left-handed pitcher. Gordon’s new AL Central-mate, Prince Fielder, struggles with it. So did Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, and Curtis Granderson last season, among others.

Eliminating that issue added a significant number of hits to Gordon’s ledger and made him a much more viable threat at the plate.

But is that sort of success sustainable? Gordon’s batting average of balls on play against lefties took a big jump, even though his rate of hitting the ball hard didn’t.

You tell us if you think Gordon is legit. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

There are zones and then there are zones. And then there’s whatever the heck Mike Napoli was in during the second half of 2011.

Napoli followed a .232/.344/.529 first half with an amazing .383/.466/.706, 18-homer burst after the All-Star break, then followed that up by hitting .328 with three home runs in the Rangers' postseason run.

What changed in Napoli’s performance? How he fared against the high, hard stuff.

Napoli’s return from the disabled list on July 4 was overshadowed by the other player who returned that day -- Derek Jeter. And it took Napoli a few days to get going. But on July 8, Napoli cracked a grand slam on an up-and-in fastball from Gio Gonzalez, and after a few days rest for the All-Star break, things started looking up for him.

When we say that, we mean it literally. Napoli began crushing pitches in the upper-third of the strike zone and above at a prodigious rate.

The hits came first, then the home runs -- a ninth-inning shot off Jon Rauch on July 29, an opposite-field game-tying shot in the eighth inning against Joaquin Benoit on Aug. 2, a ninth-inning homer against Jose Valverde on Aug. 3 and a sixth-inning homer to start a comeback from four runs down against Ubaldo Jimenez on Aug. 5.

In the second half, when a Napoli at-bat ended with him making contact with a fastball, sinker, cutter or splitter that was up in or above the strike zone, he was 28-for-53 with 11 home runs.

The count didn’t matter much to Napoli. Of those 28 hits, 19 (including six home runs) came with two strikes.

Neither did the height of the pitch. Five of the home runs came on pitches above the top of the strike zone.

Nor did where the game was played. Of those 28 hits, 19 (including seven home runs) came away from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Napoli’s 11 home runs on fastballs (encompassing the sinkers, cutters, and splitters, too) to high locations were four more than anyone else had after the All-Star break.

Even including at-bats that ended with a strikeout, Napoli hit .444 with a 1.032 slugging percentage on high fastballs after the break (the average non-pitcher was .244 and .405). Compare that to what he did prior, as noted in the chart on the right.

We have an advanced stat -- linear weight run value -- which looks at every high pitch that Napoli saw and gives him credit for a positive result (ball, hit, reached on error) and a debit for a negative result (strikes and outs).

After the All-Star break, Napoli’s performance against high pitches was worth 17.4 runs above average. That’s nearly double Nick Swisher, who rated next-highest at 9.8.

Napoli didn’t let up in the postseason, netting seven more hits and three more homers against high, hard pitches. That could have been enough to net him World Series MVP had David Freese’s heroics not gotten in the way.

What’s next for Napoli? Can he maintain anything close to the ridiculousness that was his second half? You tell us. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

New York Mets third baseman David Wright had his worst season in 2011, a year in which a back injury greatly hampered his production.

Wright came back in the middle of the season fully healthy and pelted line drives for a good part of the second half, though he hit only .216 with three home runs in September.

Wright’s biggest bugaboo in 2011 was pitches located on the inner-third of the plate and closer to him. He was unable to muscle an inside pitch in the air.

Our video analysis tool allows us to give a player credit for hitting the ball hard, meaning usually either a fast-moving line drive or a ball hit to the warning track.

In 2010, Wright had 27 "hard-hit" fly balls against inside pitches (about 36 percent of his fly balls). In 2011, he had only three (not even 10 percent). He also hit the ball on the ground with greater frequency, as noted in the chart on the right.

With the Citi Field fences now both shorter in distance from home plate and height, Wright has an opportunity to get back to being the hitter he was.

How he fares against inside pitches will be something worth watching.

How will Wright do in 2012? Discuss below.

Chase Utley’s numbers have dipped significantly over the past two seasons as the Philadelphia Phillies second baseman has battled through some injuries.

Utley’s biggest decline has come against left-handed pitching. In 2009, he hit .288 with 11 home runs against lefties, then followed that by hitting .294 with 10 home runs against them in 2010.

In 2011, Utley plummeted to a .187 batting average with two home runs in 107 at-bats. Along with that dip in production came an increase in Utley’s groundball rate against left-handed pitching.

As the chart on the right shows, Utley went from hitting groundballs about 35 percent of the time against lefties to doing so nearly half the time.

Below is a heat map that shows where Utley was most/least likely to hit for power when facing a left-handed pitcher.

Getting back to the form he previously showed will be a key to any potential improvement from him in 2012. How do you think Utley will fare in 2012? Discuss in the comments section.

Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward had a significant sophomore slump in 2011, with his batting average dropping by 50 points to .227 and his on-base percentage dropping from .393 to .319.

One of the biggest differences for Heyward in 2011 compared to his debut season was how he fared against pitches on the inner-third of the plate and closer.

It was an issue against both left-handed and right-handed pitching.

Our video review tool allows us to give a player credit for hitting the ball hard, meaning usually either a fast-moving line drive or a ball hit to the warning track. Of Heyward’s 25 fly balls against inside pitches, only two met the "hard-hit" criteria.

In interviews since the season ended, Heyward cited a shoulder injury as one of the reasons for his drop-off.

Now he’ll try to get back to producing both against inside pitches and others, as he’s expected to do.

Will Heyward bounce back in 2012? Discuss in the comments section.

Jayson Werth's struggles in 2011 were largely a product of his performance against left-handed pitching. His batting average against lefties dropped more than 100 points and his OPS against them dropped more than 200 points.

Werth went from being a hitter who lined the ball all over the field against lefties to one who hit a lot of groundballs and harmless popups. The heat map below illustrates the issues he had.

Werth’s 10 percent line-drive rate against lefties was the second-worst in the league among the 167 players who batted at least 100 times from the right side last season.

Werth’s susceptibility against hard stuff inside from lefties greatly increased. He went from 22 hits against such pitches in 2009 and 2010 to just four in 2011.

Werth previously had a history of being a smart hitter when he fell behind in the count. He hit .250 against lefties in 2009 and 2010, but was 9-for-71 in such situations against lefties in 2011.

Can Werth rebound to being the hitter he once was? Discuss below!

"Baseball Tonight" (airing at 3:30 p.m. ET) will be taking a closer look this week at players in the spotlight for 2011, asking the question "What's next?" for that player. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Lance Berkman went from a player whose career was thought to be on the verge of ending to a pivotal player on a World Series-winning team.

Berkman was one of baseball’s most prodigious mashers in his prime, posting an average season of a .301 batting average, 32 home runs and 107 RBIs from 2001 to 2009. After falling in 2010, he nearly matched that average in 2011, hitting .301 with 31 home runs and 94 RBIs.

Berkman re-found his power stroke from the left side, particularly when a pitcher would make a mistake, as noted in the chart on the right and the heat maps below. He averaged a home run every 25 at-bats versus right-handed pitching in 2010, one every 14 at-bats in 2011.

The focus figures to increase on Berkman in 2012 with the departure of Albert Pujols from the St. Louis lineup.

The question is: Can he maintain this sort of success for another year?


What will Berkman do in 2012? Discuss and debate below.

For the next two weeks, "Baseball Tonight" (airing at 3:30 p.m. ET) will take a closer look at players in the spotlight for 2012 and ask the question "What's next?" for that player. Share your thoughts in the comments section and join the discussion.

There was a time in which Ichiro Suzuki could hit any pitch thrown anywhere, and that ability was part of the key to his streak of 10 straight seasons with 200 or more hits.

That run ended last season, as did his ability to hit pitches that were thrown out of the strike zone. Suzuki totaled 135 out-of-strike-zone hits in 2009 and 2010, but just 44 in 2011.

Thanks to the wonders of Pitch F/X technology, which features cameras in every ballpark tracking pitch location, we can estimate his performance by pitch location.

The chart on the right and the heat maps below do that.

It’s an aspect of his game that will be worth watching this season to see if Ichiro can regain the form that made him one of baseball’s most dangerous hitters.

How will Ichiro do in 2012? Discuss below!

For the next two weeks, "Baseball Tonight" (airing at 3:30 p.m. ET) will take a closer look at players in the spotlight for 2012 and ask the question "What's next?" for that player. Share your thoughts in the comments section and join the discussion.

Michael Pineda got off to a terrific start for the Seattle Mariners in his debut season, but his numbers at the end of the season did not match up to those at the start of the year. In particular, his home run rate increased significantly.

Pineda was not able to replicate the success he had against lefties in the first half. He went from allowing an extra-base hit every 17 at-bats against lefties to allowing one every 12.

Pineda’s opponents batting average against left-handed hitters rose from .201 prior to the All-Star break to .302 afterwards.

The heat map below shows the damage done against Pineda when he threw a pitch in the strike zone to a left-handed hitter.

Which version of Pineda will we see with the New York Yankees in 2012?

Debate below how think you Pineda will fare in pinstripes.

For the next two weeks, "Baseball Tonight" (airing at 3:30 p.m. ET) will take a closer look at players in the spotlight for 2012 and ask the question "What's next?" for that player. Share your thoughts in the comments section and join in the discussion.

Hanley Ramirez saw his production drop significantly in 2011, as he dealt with injuries and ineffectiveness.

Ramirez finished with a batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage slash line of .243/.333/.379, all career lows. His OPS dropped by 141 points from 2010. He then was informed he’d be switching positions with the Marlins' signing of Jose Reyes.

One of the issues Ramirez faced in 2011 was that he was unable to do something that usually netted him positive results -- pull balls in the air.

Ramirez became an opposite-field fly ball hitter and his performance subsequently dipped, as the charts on the right illustrate.

Along with that, Ramirez had trouble driving fastballs, sinkers and cutters thrown to the upper-third of the strike zone and above.

When Ramirez made contact with what we called a high, hard pitch in 2009 and 2010, he hit .420 with 66 hits and nine home runs. That dipped to .256 with 11 hits and two home runs in 2011.

The heat map below further shows Ramirez’s struggles.

 

So, what's next for Ramirez? Will he bounce back strong in 2012? Discuss below!