- Sep 30, 2013
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On one of the baseball boards, the topic of 2 strike hitting came up. I’ve been in many a discussion about that over the years, and one thing that’s always bothered me, was how anyone managed to identify good 2 strike hitters to begin with. So, this time I decided to bite the bullet and see if I could come up with some way to quantify how hitters performed with 2 strikes on them.
Well, after experimenting a bit, I’ve managed to quantify how both our pitchers and our hitters REALLY deal with 2 strike counts to at least some degree.
http://www.infosports.com/scorekeeper/images/2strikesboth.pdf
The thing I see both intuitively obvious as well as proved true by the numbers is, hitters in general don’t fare very well with 2 strikes on them, and pitchers in general do very well when they get 2 strikes on hitters. Its intuitively obvious when one considers its only when there are 2 strikes that the additional possibility of making an out exists.
Rather than just throw out clichés with no proof other than “gut feelings” or “perceptions” about how hitters and pitchers compare when they are in 2 strike counts, at least now I have the ability to look at our pitchers and hitters real numbers. While I think its safe to say all hitters and pitchers can do better in those situations, with numbers in hand, those who need the most help can be easily identified and given more problem specific help. That should lead to much more efficient use of valuable coaching talent and time.
Does anyone out there have anything similar to use for FPSB? I’m pretty sure the same conversations go on about how player “A” is a great 2 strike hitter, or pitcher “Z” is murder on hitters when she gets 2 strikes on them. In BB there’s very few people who even have the capability to track such things, but I’m thinking that the higher evolved scorers in SB might have something on it.
Well, after experimenting a bit, I’ve managed to quantify how both our pitchers and our hitters REALLY deal with 2 strike counts to at least some degree.
http://www.infosports.com/scorekeeper/images/2strikesboth.pdf
The thing I see both intuitively obvious as well as proved true by the numbers is, hitters in general don’t fare very well with 2 strikes on them, and pitchers in general do very well when they get 2 strikes on hitters. Its intuitively obvious when one considers its only when there are 2 strikes that the additional possibility of making an out exists.
Rather than just throw out clichés with no proof other than “gut feelings” or “perceptions” about how hitters and pitchers compare when they are in 2 strike counts, at least now I have the ability to look at our pitchers and hitters real numbers. While I think its safe to say all hitters and pitchers can do better in those situations, with numbers in hand, those who need the most help can be easily identified and given more problem specific help. That should lead to much more efficient use of valuable coaching talent and time.
Does anyone out there have anything similar to use for FPSB? I’m pretty sure the same conversations go on about how player “A” is a great 2 strike hitter, or pitcher “Z” is murder on hitters when she gets 2 strikes on them. In BB there’s very few people who even have the capability to track such things, but I’m thinking that the higher evolved scorers in SB might have something on it.