Baseball in 2020 is weird and MLB in 2020 is even weirder still. We have watched less than two months of MLB games, yet we are already in the crunch moment of the season with most teams having fewer than
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Tag: Analytics
Is Shane Bieber Elite?
A while back, I was tagged in a Twitter thread talking about the predictive/sticky nature of hard hit balls for pitchers. The reason behind that discussion was the Cleveland pitcher Shane Bieber. Last season, he put up some fantastic numbers
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The rise of the hit by pitch
With the current trend of thinking in the front offices in MLB, we are seeing many aspects of the game at all-time highs and lows. A lot these are constantly talked about: strikeouts, home runs and lack of stolen bases
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An Application of Expected Stats
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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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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