Previous: AL Starters’ Changeups / NL Starters’ Changeups.
Sample sizes are building, but not nearly to a size worthy of deep analysis, so let’s keep rolling with our pitch-specific analysis of the arsenals of 2016 MLB ERA qualifiers. Last week, we looked at the best changeups in both leagues. This week, we’ll examine curveballs. Today, it’s the American League’s turn.
Previous: AL Starters’ Changeups.
While 2017 sample sizes build to a credible level, we’ll continue our series on 2016 ERA qualifiers’ pitch-specific quality. We’re giving all of the offerings a letter grade, weighted 50% on bat-missing and 50% on contact management. Last time out, we looked at AL starters’ changeups; today, we’ll switch to the senior circuit.
Over the last week or so in this space, 2016 ERA-qualifying starting pitchers’ contact-management abilities were assessed on a pitch-specific basis. (Here’s the AL post and here’s the NL one.) While 2017 sample sizes remain too small for much meaningful analysis, let’s take our 2016 pitch-specific analysis one step further.
Real 2017 games have been played in earnest, but sample sizes are so small that we might as well continue our look at 2016 starting-pitcher contact management by pitch type. Last time, we reviewed the AL ERA qualifiers; today, it’s the NL qualifiers’ turn.
Earlier this offseason, I spent some time reviewing the overall contact management performance of AL and NL ERA qualifiers. Exit-speed and launch-angle data was used to determine how pitchers “should have” performed on balls in play, and when the smoke cleared, CC Sabathia and Kyle Hendricks were named the 2016 AL and NL Contact Managers of the Year.
Previous editions: AL East / AL Central / AL West / NL East / NL Central.
Opening Day is less than a week away, so it’s time that we wrap up our preseason divisional previews, which utilize batted-ball data to hone in on each club’s 2016 true-talent level, and then identify areas of relative strength and vulnerability on each club, as well as key roster turnover. Last up, the National League West.
Previous editions: AL East / AL Central / NL East / NL Central.
Opening Day is in sight, and we have only two more installments of this divisional preview series. The two western divisions remain; today, we’ll focus on the AL West.
Previous editions: AL East / AL Central / NL East.
The World Baseball Classic is in its final stages, meaning that both the end of spring training and the start of the regular season are in sight. We’d better get through the remaining installments in this series quickly.
Previous editions: AL East / NL East.
Opening Day is just over the horizon, though we have to navigate the remainder of the World Baseball Classic and the entirety of March Madness first. In the meantime, let’s continue our look at the upcoming season, with the third of our six divisional previews.
Previous editions: AL East.
As we sit in the midst of a sneaky good stretch on the sports calendar, with early round WBC and football free agency action underway, it’s time to continue looking ahead to the regular season with the second of six divisional previews.