Yesterday, I reviewed the starting pitchers whose SwStk% has changed most over the last 30 days compared to earlier in the season. Now let’s flip over to the hitters. Today, we’ll review Barrel% changes over the last 30 days, which should explain a power surge or decline over that time period.
Pitchers change far more frequently than hitters. Their velocity fluctuates from start to start and throughout the season, their pitch mix is often adjusted, and sometimes there are games where the command just ain’t there. So it pays to review a pitcher’s recent skills, as the full season line might not tell the whole story of who that pitcher is right now. With that in mind, let’s find out which pitchers have gained and lost the most SwStk% points over the last 30 days versus the beginning of the season period.
Yesterday’s dominating non-closing reliever post was pretty popular, with many of you offering additional names. So, I figured I would double up on the theme by posting another group of relievers. This time, I sorted by CSW% to include those who might not be as adept at inducing swinging strikes, but have made up for it by generating a high rate of called strikes. I filtered out anyone that made yesterday’s list or is currently serving as closer.
Let’s get back to discussing those non-closing middle relievers, the ones you generally ignore in 12-team mixed leagues and shallower, but deliver real value in deep mixed and mono leagues, despite the lack of saves.
It’s been nearly a month and a half since I last reviewed the starting pitchers who sported the greatest gap between their ERA and xERA marks. So let’s revisit these lists as they could provide you with a quick group of buy low and sell high candidates.
Statcast has enough toys to keep us nerds busy for months going down rabbit holes and digging into various metrics and numbers galore. One of the expected metrics I’ve rarely used and haven’t reach much about is xHR. It’s exactly what it sounds like, Statcast’s equation that calculates an “expected” home run total.
It’s been just over a month since I last reviewed the hitters that had most underperformed and overperformed their xwOBA marks. I’m not going to review how they have performed since, as the idea is for rest of season production, not just the next month.
Yesterday, I dove into the new Statcast bat tracking metrics to learn whether the metrics are any better at predicting HR/FB rate than what we already have, namely Barrel%. Sadly, the answer was no. However, that doesn’t mean these new metrics are useless, of course. As we collect more and more data and sample size issues go away, we’ll be able to investigate more with significantly greater confidence in the results.
You should all know by now that Statcast recently made their bat tracking data public. This is a big deal! Our own Ben Clemens made some early observations and also shared what the data does and doesn’t tell us, which included a correlation table between the new metrics and the familiar.
Yesterday, I reviewed the seven rookie hitters who had recorded the highest plate appearance total so far this season. Let’s continue on down the PA column for a final six.
