This is sort of, um, what’s the right word — stunning? John Walsh at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) has done some terrific work with the new Enhanced Gameday pitch-f/x data that is all the rage:
What I want to cover is how to identify the pitches of any pitcher’s repertoire, given the fabulous pitch-f/x data that several others and I have been working with this season. What does he throw? How hard does he throw each kind of pitch? What sort of movement is he getting?
In addition to describing basic pitch types and what they look like …read more

How appropriate that so many great baseball platoons were in effect during the decade that brought us the movie Platoon. Steve Treder at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) has published the latest in his look back at “extraordinarily productive left-right platoon partnerships.”
A couple things stand out to me. First, it’s amazing how much mileage Earl Weaver got out of John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke in left field. Both were good players with flaws. The genius of Weaver, of course, is that he found a way to maximize their utility while minimizing their flaws. (As an aside, I’m …read more

We’ve touched on minor league equivalencies (MLEs) as a method for interpreting a player’s minor-league performance. Now Chris Constancio at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I am a contributor to THT) is looking at MLEs with an eye toward refining the translations. In his first installment, Chris examines the role of experience on MLEs. Always more to learn…