Comments on: Pitch Type Linear Weights

By: Mooooooooooooooose

Mooooooooooooooose — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:25:32 +0000

“These give the actual value of each pitch based on the count or the final result of the plate appearance.

So here’s a quick example at-bat.

Ball, FB – Starts at -.002, Ends at .032
Strike, FB – Starts at .032, Ends at -.016
Strike, SL – Starts at -.016, Ends at -.078
Ball, SL – Starts at -.078, Ends at -.037
Ball, SL – Starts at -.037, Ends at .057
Fly Out, FB – Starts at .057, Ends at -.28

If you take the difference between the start and the end values and then attribute them to the pitch type and then add them all up, that is what we’re calculating. (These are rounded values).”

I didn’t understand this before and now I’m twice as confused! Somebody asked which numbers were better and you said “higher is always better for these stats.” Yet in this example, the strikes and fly out result in lower numbers and balls result in higher. Help me out here!!

By: drew

drew — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:19:57 +0000

Beyond awesome. Thanks David A!

Check out Randy Johnsons slider. You won’t believe it if I told you.

By: David Appelman

David Appelman — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:19:30 +0000

Well, there are certain things excluded in the pitch type stats such as IBB’s and there are always pitches that aren’t defined so they’re not going to match up exactly. Also, singles, doubles, and triples are counted in the pitch type stats so that is going to throw off the totals a bit.

These are also above average and not above replacement, but they should match up fairly close if you remove whatever we give a pitcher as far as replacement goes.

I think these stats are more to diagnose problems with a particular pitch or see how good a pitcher’s fastball or slider or whatever actually is than they are to measure a pitcher’s overall value.

By: Xeifrank

Xeifrank — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:07:33 +0000

So if I add together the 2009 runs above average for each pitch type from a pitcher, how will that compare to the "Value" group of stats below that shows the pitchers RAR. For example, if I take Clayton Kershaw's 2009 pitching stats, and add his pitch types up I get a total of 6 runs above average, and his RAR is listed as 8 runs above replacement. How to get these two stats to talk apples to apples, or is that impossible? Thanks. vr, Xei

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:00:27 +0000

I’ve got a question, how much would a really poor (or good) defense effect these run values?

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:47 +0000

Thanks for the stats.
Does that mean we can expect more from D-train?
I am just a beginner and wants to learn more about baseball.
Thank you in advance.

By: Eric Cioe

Eric Cioe — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:53:02 +0000

Totally agreed.

This new feature is really, really cool. I’m still not entirely sure how it works, but I like it. One way to make it just a little cooler: make it a sortable category. We can see who throws the most fastballs, or who throws the hardest fastball, and now we’ll be able to see who saves the most runs with his fastball.

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:56:50 +0000

Fangraphs is not far away from officially being the only baseball statistics source ever needed for anything.

By: Rory

Rory — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:50:57 +0000

This is great. I was wondering if FanGraphs could have a xBABIP column added to the players’ profiles. I’m referring to the formula put forth by Hardball Times http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/batters-and-babip/

By: NadavT

NadavT — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:48:20 +0000

I think I get it. So it takes the result of each pitch (ball/strike/in-play/etc.) and then assigns run values to it based on historical run values of similar situations, with “situations” meaning # of outs, # of men on, and count?

If so, how would a “defense-neutral” version of this be different? Would it just be that in your example, “Fly Out, FB” would change to “Fly Ball, FB” with an appropriate adjustment to the change in run value based on the expected outcome of fly balls?

Thanks for adding this awesome feature and for answering my questions!