Archive for Starting Pitchers

2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher Projected $ Value, Part 1, A Review

After finishing our review of projected hitter dollar value compared to actual, let’s now skip on over to starting pitchers. We’ll start by reviewing THE BAT’s favorite starters, with projected dollar values significantly higher than Steamer.

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The Best pVals in 2023: Offspeed/Breaking Ball Edition

Part one of this installment looked at four-seam fastballs and cutters. Part two analyzed sinkers and splitters. Part three, our final act, will detail sliders, curveballs, and changeups.

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The Best pVals in 2023: Fastball Edition Part Two

pVals are a topic of debate among pitch-level data masterminds. One side may consider them useless. Good pitches get hit and bad pitches get taken for strikes and pVals don’t explain any of that. On the other side, people like to know what actually happened. If a splitter left in the middle of the zone gets a called third strike when it probably should have been mashed for a home run, then pVals still credit the pitcher. The strikeout is what actually happened.

Keep in mind as you peruse this season’s best fastballs just that; pVals aren’t perfect. You’ll read about Chris Bassitt’s sinker and think, Chris Bassitt is a clear candidate for being drafted, but read on and you may back away from that stance. pVals help us understand what occurred, but take caution when using them to predict what will happen. Confused? Let’s just watch some GIFs.

Part one of this installment looked at four-seam fastballs and cutters. Part two will focus on sinkers and splitters.

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2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher ERA, Part 4, A Review

Today is the final ERA forecast review as part of the 2023 projection showdown. We finish up with six more of Steamer’s ERA favorites compared to THE BAT. Let’s see which system fared better.

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2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher ERA, Part 3, A Review

Unlike the other projection showdowns, I decided to go a bit deeper on the ERA forecasts, reviewing the next six names on each system’s bullish list. Today, we’ll jump back into THE BAT’s starting pitcher ERA favorites. As a reminder, these were the system’s top six.

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2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher ERA, Part 2, A Review

Today we continue to review preseason ERA projections from THE BAT and Steamer as part of the 2023 projection showdown recap. Yesterday, I reviewed THE BAT’s ERA favorites, so today it’s time to scamper on over to Steamer’s ERA favorites.

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2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher ERA, Part 1, A Review

Today, we continue reviewing the 2023 projection showdown, pitting THE BAT/THE BAT X against Steamer forecasts in various fantasy categories. We’ll stick with pitchers, but this time move on to ERA, starting with THE BAT’s favorites. After dipping below 4.00 in 2022 for the first time since 2015, leaguewide ERA jumped back above 4.00 this season, so its possible the more optimistic ERA projections were less accurate than the bearish ones. Let’s find out how THE BAT’s favorites performed.

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Pitcher Results After 2nd Tommy John Surgery

With Jacob deGrom and Walker Buehler coming back from their second Tommy John surgery (TJS), I wanted to go back and look at how pitchers performed after going under the knife a second time. While I had high hopes this study would find some useful adjustments, the results were mixed and probably point to the pitcher being more of the same. Read the rest of this entry »


2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher K%, Part 2, A Review

Yesterday, I flipped my 2023 projection showdown reviews over to the pitchers, starting with THE BAT’s starting pitcher strikeout rate favorites, compared to Steamer’s forecasts. Now let’s review Steamer’s favorites.

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2023 Projection Showdown — THE BAT vs Steamer Starting Pitcher K%, Part 1, A Review

After spending nearly all October reviewing the hitter category comparisons as part of the 2023 projection showdown, pitting THE BAT X against Steamer forecasts, it’s time to move on to starting pitchers. Today, I’ll start with strikeout rate and the names of those in which THE BAT (THE BAT X only projects hitters) was more bullish on compared to Steamer.

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