SB Nation - Login for mobile commenting

Lookout Landing

A Comparison

Stat Pitcher A Pitcher B
Strike% 61.9% 62.2%
Oswing% 23.7% 24.7%
Zswing% 68.5% 68.7%
Ocontact% 69.2% 61.5%
Zcontact% 89.2% 88.8%
Contact% 84.2% 81.8%
Zone% 50.8% 51.0%
Fstrike% 58.0% 59.3%

Assume same handedness.

Oswing% = rate of swings on pitches out of the zone
Zswing% = rate of swings on pitches in the zone
Ocontact% = contact rate of swings on pitches out of the zone
Zcontact% = contact rate of swings on pitches in the zone
Zone% = percentage of pitches in the zone
Fstrike% = rate of first pitch strikes

Poll
Ignoring things like age or contract, which starter would you rather have? (Vote before cheating)
Pitcher A
74 votes
Pitcher B
834 votes

908 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  50 comments

Comments

I hope this is a Washburn vs. French comparison and not a Felix vs. Silva kind of thing.
No seriously, who voted A?
Probably someone who believes Jeff is trying to make fools of us all.
If I knew who, I'd box them.
I'm serious too.

People that picked A are either doing it because they think it’s funny or just to be different or are too stupid to read. There’s not a single piece of evidence presented that justifies picking A.

I hate you people.

In fairness.

The two players are pretty similar, at least to the uninformed eye. I’d be thrilled that most people picked Player B.

Give me one reason, one,

to vote A.

Fans of Pitch-to-contact.

Not saying it’s right, just saying it’s possible.

Those people are wrong.

We don’t have to be fair to wrong.

It comes first
An accident.

Which I actually did…

I thought it was a good thing to get batters to hit your out of the zone pitches?
Better to have them miss them
If you know what the numbers mean there is no reason that you would pick the one with worse numbers.

Makes no sense at all.

What if you don't?

It’s not that far fetched.

If you don't know what the numbers mean, why bother voting?
What if you thought you knew but had the wrong idea?
Well than you made a mistake, and that's pretty much the only possible reason for picking A
The explanation was right there though.

I don’t see any way that someone could translate Washburn’s worse numbers to being a more desirable pitcher.

The explanation wasn't included when I first posted this

That came later.

Hahahahahahahaha.
It's amazing how clear the numbers are.
It's a much smaller sample size for Pitcher B but I'm not worried about it.
And we got a prospect!
The Tigers are run by crazy people
The new Elias Rankings estimates are out and J-Wash is in danger of not being a Type B.
Where can I find these stats?

I know this has been asked 100 times before but I can’t remember for the life of me.

Fangraphs leaderboards, under Plate Discipline
Thank you Jeff.
fangraphs.com
reply fail
Thank you none the less.
I picked Player B

But have no idea who either of them are (the only Mariner I see with 24.7 Oswing% is Doug Fister).

Washburn and French.
French has a 24.7 Oswing%
Weird.

He’s listed as having 23.2 % on Individual Teams listings and 24.7% on the Player’s page.

That’s rather annoying.

Individual Teams would only show his Mariners stats

The Player page includes his Tigers stats.

I try to keep up with sabermetrics

but I just have no fucking clue what those two sets of numbers mean.

.

Strike% = percentage of pitches thrown for a strike
Swing% = percentage of pitches thrown that a batter swings at
Contact% = percentage of pitches swung at that a batter makes contact with
Zone% = percentage of pitches thrown inside the strike zone (as determined by pitch F/X)
Fstrike% = percentage of first pitch strikes

Prefix O = pitch is outside the strike zone (as determined by pitch F/X)
Prefix Z = pitch is inside the strike zone (as determined by pitch F/X)

The difference between Strike% and Zone% is essentially the difference between umpires and robots?
No

Zone% is the number of pitches determined by an observer to end in the strike zone. Strike% is the number of pitches that end in a strike. You can get strikes on pitches out of the zone when the batter swings.

Whoosh!

Now I see. Thanks.

I don't want either pitcher A or B on my baseball team
Even though pitcher B is perfectly suited to your park and makes no money?
Would prefer he's my #1 starter in AAA.
And bring in a free agent...

That makes 5x more and pitches no more effectively to be the fifth starter?

Well if wishes were fishes we'd all live in Sea World but I can't see how you would be unhappy with having French on your team.

You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Lookout Landing to post a comment.