Agenda
The title of the article is an allusion to Schott’s Miscellany, which you should definitely check out if you never have and feel compelled to know that a group of larks is called an exaltation or that a member of the 32nd degree of Freemasonry is known as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.
—Matt Harvey and High-Stress Pitches–
Like most of the baseball world, I’m fascinated by Matt Harvey and the question of whether it is worth it for him to exceed his surgeon-prescribed innings limit because of the Mets’ place in the standings this year. To start, let me stress that I have absolutely no medical training. As a layman, I find it interesting that we rely on innings pitched as the barometer of stress for a pitcher. I expect the reason we do that is because innings pitched is the most accessible measurement of how much pitching a pitcher did. Innings pitched no doubt correlates well with total pitches thrown, so there is little lost by relying on the easier stat to find. Still, would pitches thrown even be the best way to capture the stress a pitcher faced?
Sort our leaderboards by second half ERA in descending order in the American League and Jeff Samardzija sits atop the list with the highest mark. And it’s not even close. His 7.43 ERA might have been less of a surprise if it came from another former White Sox starter Hector Noesi, but the guy affectionately known as “Shark” has been bitten by the bad pitching bug. It’s not even like he has pitched well, but has suffered from some poor fortune like teammate Chris Sale (5.00 ERA in 2nd half vs 2.57 SIERA), as his 4.76 SIERA is fifth worst in the second half. Of course, he wasn’t exactly Samardzija like in the first half either, but a 4.02 ERA compiled while pitching in a hitter’s haven of a ball park and with a terrible defensive unit behind him isn’t so bad.
Well, Chelsea won their Champions League opener, however Arsenal didn’t. I guess that makes it a good-but-not-grand day.
On today’s agenda:
1. Joe Panik placed on 60-day disabled list
2. A two-dinger day for Jayson Werth
3. Joe Kelly’s shoulder issue
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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This is the best rookie class for fantasy baseball nerds in a long time, possibly of all time. Between hitters like Miguel Sano, Joc Pederson, Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa and pitchers ranging from Roberto Osuna to Lance McCullers, Noah Syndergaard and Raisel Iglesias et al. Rather than focus on the rookies that win roto-MVP awards or fantasy Cy Youngs, and since I’m a big fan of self-deprecation, I’ll be focusing on the rookies I gambled and whiffed on. I’m tentatively calling it the “Sigh, young” because sometimes I would see what my young players did and just audible sigh. Prospects can break your heart. If I were more clever, I’d think of a separate award for hitters and pitchers, but alas, I am not. Perhaps the comment section will help. I’ve limited the player pool by only including rookie hitters with a minimum of 100 plate appearances or rookie pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched.
Where the defensive shift and batting average on balls in play (BABIP) intersect intrigues me, but I’ve had a hard time figuring out a way to quantify it without having some sort of access to shift data. Despite advances Major League Baseball has made in measuring and collection data, not all of this information is publicly available or easily accessible, even if you know someone who knows someone (this guy).
But I think I finally had some kind of breakthrough or epiphany or what-have-you. It would be a time-intensive approach — a problem for a lazy person (this guy) — but it would be worth it to, perhaps, chip away at the relatively enigmatic BABIP with only publicly available tools at our disposal.
More than four months ago, I posted an expected BABIP (xBABIP) equation that is not necessarily better than any other that exists but does use strictly publicly available data. Here, I expand.
Agenda
Yesterday both Manchester City and Manchester United lost their opening games of the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League. If Arsenal and Chelsea both find ways to lose today, this may be my favorite stretch of soccer since the the USWNT won the World Cup earlier this summer.
On today’s agenda:
1. Khris Davis is socking dingers again
2. Drew Hutchison moved to relief
3. Welcome back, Matt Holliday
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Episode 114 – Typo Naming
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Dylan entirely avoiding fantasy football, Dylan trying to gloat again about Joey Votto vs. Tim Hudson, Matt not being thrilled about the Cubs facing A.J. Burnett, Jedd Gyorko as a sneaky infield pick against lefties, whether or not to trust Jonathan Schoop with lefties, Dylan’s new DFS strategy where he ignores platoon splits, adding to the Matt Duffy confusion, the “Peralta Parents” and their weird naming conventions, recognizing Aaron Altherr, Anibal Sanchez’s return, Jeff Samardzija being extra bad, and Matt failing a shoutout once again.
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We’re only a couple of weeks away from season’s end, so hopefully your team is in such amazing shape that it doesn’t require a dive into the free agent pool.