Dillon Gee: Pace of Play’s Greatest Ally
To the delight of no fewer than tens of people, today marked the season’s first edition of the author’s highly proprietary and also useless NERD scores. NERD, to quote that inaugural post, “represents an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game.”
Within today’s edition of those NERD scores, one finds that Mets right-hander Dillon Gee receives a score of 9 — higher, it would seem, than certain readers might have expected.
Indeed, Gee’s 5.60 ERA (163 ERA-, if you prefer the park- and league-adjusted version) doesn’t immediately suggest watchability. The fielding-independent numbers (16.4% K, 4.1% BB, 58.9% GB, 88 xFIP-) have been much better, however. But what has really distinguished Gee from his peers thus far has been a combination of his pace between pitches and his overall strike rate.
Consider the following table. Pace denotes average time (in seconds) between pitches. Stk% denotes the percentage of all pitches which have been strikes. The column headings preceded by a z denote the z-scores by those particular metrics as compared to all starters who’ve recorded 10 or more innings. Avg denotes the average of the relevant z-scores.
| # | Name | Team | IP | Pace | Stk% | zPace | zStk% | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dillon Gee | Mets | 17.2 | 16.4 | 72.4% | 2.3 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| 2 | Max Scherzer | Nationals | 28.2 | 19.2 | 71.4% | 1.0 | 2.2 | 1.6 |
| 3 | Chris Sale | White Sox | 19.0 | 19.1 | 70.8% | 1.0 | 2.1 | 1.5 |
| 4 | Kyle Hendricks | Cubs | 15.2 | 18.6 | 68.2% | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| 5 | Matt Harvey | Mets | 26.2 | 18.6 | 68.2% | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| 6 | Eric Stults | Braves | 16.0 | 17.4 | 66.1% | 1.8 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| 7 | Mark Buehrle | Blue Jays | 23.2 | 16.5 | 64.3% | 2.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| 8 | Michael Wacha | Cardinals | 20.1 | 18.7 | 67.5% | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| 9 | Johnny Cueto | Reds | 29.0 | 19.8 | 69.2% | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.1 |
| 10 | Trevor May | Twins | 14.2 | 18.1 | 66.4% | 1.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
What one finds is that Gee has produced both (a) the third-lowest pace mark and also (b) the absolute highest strike rate among the 145 pitchers included in this sample. The distanced between the average of his z-scores and second-place Max Scherzer‘s is the equal to the difference between second-place Max Scherzer’s and 20th-place Jacob deGrom’s. Put succinctly, no one — including commissioner Rob Manfred — is doing more to hasten along baseball games than the Mets right-hander.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Golly, Gee
He’s Steve Trachsel atoning for his sins
Thanks for answering my question! Although, I think most Mets fans would agree with me that Dillon Gee should maybe not throw so many strikes since they seem to be hit exceptionally hard. Also I for one would much rather watch a Jacob deGrom start.
I assume this is somewhat SSS fueled too.
If your life is SOOO fast paced that you can’t enjoy a game because it’s TOO SLOW, then YOU are the one with a problem, not baseball.
Go watch arena football. They’ll be lots of loud sounds and bright videos.
When your life is SOOO dull that you can’t think of anything more exciting to do than watch players adjust their jocks and swing at the air, then YOU are the one with a problem, not baseball.
Go watch golf. There’s lots of uncomfortable silence in which nothing happens for you to while away the hours.
Sorry, I was watching the Kiss-Cam, what?
I think you both represent the extremes of this argument that few agree with. Yes, it should obviously be a good thing when we can reduce the time of a game without reducing the aesthetic attractiveness. But, we also should realize that some of the time between is necessary for batters and pitchers to clear their hands and optimize their performance (which adds to the aesthetic attractiveness). It should be a balance.
Gee Whiz!
Wow. Tonight 70 pitches, 7 and two thirds, game over in 1 hour and 59 minutes. The game was over before I’d done the dishes and put the kids to bed.
Dillon Gee always seems to take a long time between pitches
Baseball could use more pitchers like Dillon Gee.
I’m hesitant to anoint Dillon Gee the president of a club whose modern chapter was practically founded by Mark Buehrle while the master is still right there doing his thing too.