2016 MLB Regular-Season Thread

I don't think that's it, though. He hasn't lost his fastball. But he wants to pitch complete games. And, I'm guessing. reduce the chance of injuries. This is all by design. Although it flies in the face of sabermetric tenets, it kind of reminds me of writers who know the rules (about grammar, storytelling, etc.) and, then, also know how to effectively break them. It's a fun experiment.

 

Yates rips on RGIII's Insta-grammar ...

RGIII claps back

 

Warren Spahn was a sabermetric guru, I guess.

Gee's right. This has been going on for a century.

 

I made that point on my Facebook feed: He's doing what we were told the old-timers used to do. Save their best stuff for when it's needed or against the best hitters. Somewhere along the way, sabermetrics convinced us, "That's not how it works! You have to throw 98 mph all the time!"

Good comp on Spahn. Lifetime BABIP of .258.

 

It's interesting. "Moneyball" stated with certitude that pitchers can't control batted balls. That chapter is not going to age well.

 

If pitchers don't at least have a significant influence on the nature of batted balls, then generations of infielders have wasted their time chattering "make him hit it to me" and I never saw Mariano Rivera.

 

I am particularly amused by xFIP, which tells us what the pitcher would be doing if everyone allowed home runs at the exact same rate. Useful information, that.

 

It's if everyone allowed home runs on fly balls at the same exact rate. Supposedly it's more predictive than FIP.

 

Great.

 

The FIPpening

 

Oh look, sportswriters rushing to create a narrative whole cloth out of a small amount of data and a faux conflict.