from Amazon
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Classifying pitches
Josh Kalk provides the necessary primer so that we have a baseline to compare against.
The confusion continues with the use of the word “break”. I sincerely hope that the heavyweights (Josh, John, Joe, Mike, Dan, et al) get their terms consistent. A “break” is what you see as a human being. What Josh is showing is spin-induced, gravity/time-less movement. A break is made up of those three things: the spin imparted by the pitcher, the speed of the ball, and gravity.
OPS? The correct currency is either runs or wins. John Walsh does it right in the THT Annual. You can get what you need from Craig Burley or me. The short rule is: never ever ever use OPS, unless you are trying to do something quick.
Josh’s work is simply too fascinating to have such imperfections. I’m being picky to all you guys, but you guys can set the standards here. Don’t confuse readers with “breaks” that exist in an equation, and OPS, which has no units.