THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Situational Pitching

I don’t know if I have a very mild or extremely strong annoyance to http://www.slate.com/id/2151273/

While the clutch-hitting question has spawned piles of research, clutch pitching is a phenomenon that’s gone essentially unexamined.

Nevertheless, Andy did examine the issue for THE BOOK, and there is a skill component to it.  It might not necessarily be a “men on base” situation, but rather simply a change in pitching motion (full windup v step).  And Glavine’s splits are rather incredible.

The peripheral ERA is a little problematic, because things like WP, PB, BK may or may not be included.