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Pitching

by Piper Slowinski
February 15, 2010

Pitching is a ridiculous thing when you stop and think about it. It quite literally taxes the human arm to its biological limits, yet demands incredible precision and relentless repetition. As a result, pitchers can be quite fickle commodities and prone to injuries and irregular career paths. Some pitchers don’t figure everything out until they’re past 30 (e.g. Randy Johnson) while others achieve dominance at an early age but are unable to maintain that level (think Scott Kazmir). All these factors makes evaluating pitchers tricky, but there is plenty of exciting work being done these days in this area, especially with Pitch f/x data.

When evaluating a pitcher, rely mostly on the golden trifecta of FIP/xFIP/tERA. Batted ball data, BABIP, homerun rates, LOB%, and rate statistics are all very important too, though, and can shed light on individual players. Scouting data is invaluable as well, although unfortunately we have very little of this publicly available for use.

Links for Further Reading:

Voros McCracken’s Groundbreaking DIPS Theory – Baseball Prospectus

How Can we Tell if a Pitcher is Any Good? – The Book Blog

Sabermetrics 101: Pitching – Lookout Landing

Evaluating Pitcher Talent – U.S.S. Mariner

The Injury Zone – Hardball Times/Josh Kalk





Defense
 
wOBA

Piper was the editor-in-chief of DRaysBay and the keeper of the FanGraphs Library.

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Sean Severns
11 years ago

I am trying to find out what PFR, and ERC are in sabermetric stats.

0
Friedman
11 years ago
Reply to  Sean Severns

PFR (Power/finesse ratio) = (K + BB)/IP

ERC = Component ERA. Too lazy to type it all but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_ERA

0
sportsfreak0217
10 years ago

what does E F stand for

0
Mark
10 years ago

When I click on Glossary, I get this page. It doesn’t look like a Glossary. Where is it hiding really?

14
Dave
9 years ago
Reply to  Mark

I agree. I don’t understand why there is no centralized repository of stat definitions/abbreviations used on this site. Its insane.

27
THOMAS H
1 year ago
Reply to  Dave

Bump

1
Neb
10 years ago

Where can I find “PitchFxType” abreviation meanings?

TIA

2
Gallo
9 years ago
Reply to  Neb

http://www.fangraphs.com/library/index.php/misc/pitch-fx/

FA = fastball
FF = four-seam fastball
FT = two-seam fastball
FC = fastball (cutter)
FS / SI / SF = fastball (sinker, split-fingered)

SL = slider
CH = changeup
CB / CU = curveball
KC = knuckle-curve
KN = knuckleball
EP = eephus

7
nichove
9 years ago

Does anybody know where to get 2010 siera projections?

0
John Hancock
1 year ago

What do the stats “Starting” and “Relieving” measure?

0
alemungermember
1 year ago
Reply to  John Hancock

They are Runs Above Replacement (RAR) splits depending on whether the pitcher was starting or relieving.

For example: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=c%2c54%2c55%2c56%2c57%2c58%2c59&season=2020&month=0&season1=2020&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=19361%2c16502&startdate=2020-01-01&enddate=2020-12-31

Corbin Burnes was a much better starter than reliever this year, while Ryan Yarbrough accumulated almost 40% of his value in only 9 innings of relief (~15% of his total IP).

0
bruceroe
1 year ago

how d\o I find spin rates?

0
bruceroe
1 year ago
Reply to  bruceroe

I FOUND THEM AT sTATCAST

-1
bruceroe
1 year ago

How do I find swinging strike rates?

-1
bruceroe
1 year ago
Reply to  bruceroe

FOUND AT STATCOST SITE

-1
betlabs
1 year ago

Hello, i would like to ask you if there is range od ratings for new statcats stats?

I mean
Awful
Poor
Below Average
Average
Above Average
Great
Excellent
?

And if exist, also for batting.

Thanks and have a nice day

0
serra
1 year ago

Hello, what is ‘Qualified’ in the pitchers filter? (It comes associated with the number of innings pitched). Thanks.

0
Kenmember
11 months ago

What is the ‘-‘ for in ERA- ? Is it park or league adjusted? or something else?

0
Kenmember
11 months ago
Reply to  Ken

or is it just the ERA scaled where the mean is 100?

0
wiitytily
11 months ago

What is the differences between SI-X(cs) and SI-X(pi)? I know they are indicating pitch movement, but I don’t know differences between them

0
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Updated: Sunday, July 3, 2022 11:09 PM ETUpdated: 7/3/2022 11:09 PM ET
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