When a pitcher’s fastball has sub-optimal vertical break, some teams refer to the pitch as landing in the “dead zone”. Vertical break and velocity are the two most important indicators of a fastball’s effectiveness, but the former is the subject of this piece. Ideally, a pitcher’s fastball is towards either extreme of the vertical break... Continue Reading →
xRV: The best pitches and pitchers of 2020
Earlier this summer, I informally introduced a pitch quality metric called Expected Run Value (xRV). This was in a piece for South Side Hit Pen, Sports Illustrated’s White Sox site. The article analyzed two unsung heroes of Chicago’s bullpen, Evan Marshall and Jimmy Cordero, as measured by various metrics including xRV. The basis of xRV... Continue Reading →