Welcome back Christopher Gauthier Have you ever been at a game and a player smokes a ball right at someone? Like, had that ball been hit a little more to the left or the right of the fielder, it’s a
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Tag: Analytics
Investigating Sophomore Slump
This is Chris Gauthier’s debut article for Bat Flips and Nerds. He’s a college student and a Mets fan. If you’re a dedicated sports fan, chances are at one point or another, you’ve heard the term “sophomore slump,” referring to
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What infield OAA tells us about shortstops?
As I have stated previously the Infield Outs Above Average (OAA) metrics available on Baseball Savant contains a plethora of information. You can look at individuals and not only see their overall defensive value but you can breakdown the individuals
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Challenge Everything
Do you know how well your team does at challenging calls? I don’t know how well the Indians do. I was listening to a podcast last week and was surprised to hear them say that MLB’s instant replay challenge system
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The Impact of the Home Plate Umpire on Run Expectancy
Imagine you’re a pitcher in the majors and you’ve done everything you can to prep for a game so that you’re in the best condition. You’ve gone through the game plan with the catcher and coaches, to know where to
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What can Statcast’s Infield OAA tell us about positioning?
In my previous piece, on the intro to infield outs above average (OAA), I quickly compared Marcus Semien and Javier Baez. I showed you that, in 2019, Baez had 19 OAA and Semien has -4 OAA. This analytically tells us
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A Whole New World Of Defensive Metrics
For extremely online baseball fans the offseason has been one of the most active in recent years. A huge cheating scandal landed very quickly after the World Series finished. The top free agent players signed early with further deals happening
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Do MLB Writers & Broadcasters hate your team?
Like most of you I follow many baseball writers on Twitter so I can get their views on the latest news and read their new articles. Their aren’t many sites I check every day to see what new content is
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Umpires are more biased than I thought
In the midst of its Postseason, and probably unbeknownst to most of its fans, MLB has taken its next steps in using an automated ball-strike system or “Robo Umps” as I like to call them. This was first tested in
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Chasing Probabilities and The Postseason Crapshoot
The end of the regular season is the time of the season when I check the playoff odds every day, to see how much they have changed. As I have said with WAR in my previous pieces, these are values
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