Deep Thoughts with CheeseIsGood: Strikeouts and Walks
I’ve been hovering around this subject for the past couple weeks, and I still have a lot more research to do and numbers to run to figure out exactly what to do with this information, but I wanted to throw out this very basic data that I looked at recently.
If you’ve been reading my nonsense for any period of time, you know how strongly I stress the very basic stats for pitchers: strikeouts and walks. The world is filled with all kinds of fancy new metrics; we’ve got the statcast exit velocities and spin rates and barrels and we’ve got whiff rates and zone profiles on every different variety of pitch. It can all get a little overwhelming, especially if you are new to MLB, or have limited time or interest in these advanced stats.
When it seems like the game is changing, as we’ve discussed with the power surge, and you see some ace pitchers getting hit around, the natural reaction seems to be that we must be doing something wrong. Why are we still paying for aces if they are giving up more runs this year? There must be some hidden stats that tell us who the best pitchers really are, right?
Our Premium content can help you make better picks every day
- To read this article for today’s MLB games, you need to have a subscription to RG Premium.
- A Premium subscription will allow you to access this article, as well as Consensus Value Rankings, daily picks from top-ranked players, and much more.
- Want access just for today? Purchase a day pass to quickly gain access to Premium content for today’s slate!