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 →
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 →
Back in 2016, a mere 13% of MLB plate appearances involved a shifted defense. In 2020, that percentage has nearly tripled to 36%. Strategic defensive positioning has become widely accepted and increasingly prevalent in MLB. Since all MLB teams have an analytics department, most teams are likely leveraging internal analysis to develop a strategic defense... Continue Reading →
What is the value of a quantitative analyst? That is a question I have had for some time. Right off the bat, I was able to find an article by Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur on FiveThirtyEight dating back to 2016, where they investigated the upward trend in increasing front office sizes in Major League... Continue Reading →
During this year’s shortened MLB Draft we had the privilege of watching players get drafted out of dozens of BCTeam college programs. This week we will be doing a mini blog series highlighting some of these draft picks and looking at the stats and metrics that make them so special. Introduction With the second pick... Continue Reading →
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