Unfortunately, there's a problem with this widely used stat. Additionally, pitchers with high K rates tend to be among the best at notching impressive ERA and WHIP figures. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). "There are times when one play makes the whole difference, one call makes the whole difference. A good strikeout pitcher will average roughly one K per IP. For further proof, here are the top 20 K/BB ratios of the last three years, once again using only pitchers that started 10 or more games. That said, the type of pitcher is again important here. This puts her so-called "strike percentage" at 60-62%. In 2002, 54.2 percent of all pitches were thrown for strikes. Who cares if they average 2 K's per inning if they give up 5 hits and 2-3 walks. The reason why Anderson is highlighted in this column, however, is that his 11.80 swinging strike percentage should have produced a strike rate around one batter per inning Justin Verlander and Kyle Wright had similar swinging strike rates and each struck out at least 8.5 batters per nine innings. Do Not Sell My Personal Information. All of these have the same result an out but only one of them generates oohs and ahhs. In fact, his 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings are the most in MLB history for any pitcher with at least 800 innings. Since Whiff/Swing is new (well, the leaderboards are) and performed slightly better than SwStr% at explaining K% variation, when I refer to whiffs in this article, Ill be referring to BPs version. Are the Spiders Right for Your Child? Everything else held constant (BB rate, HR rate, and BABIP), going from a 5% strikeout rate to a 10% rate results in a .016 drop in batting average. Because he was so dominant, people forget that Martinez weighed a buck-75 when soaking wet. OK, were not going to do that, but we will highlight the best pitchers at throwing strikeouts. (K-BB)/PA is the same thing as K% minus BB% (both statistics that are readily available). "When I came into baseball, I had one goal for my career the Hall of Fame. 5 pitchers who could lead MLB in strikeouts this year. That robbed Astros fans of seeing Richard and Nolan Ryan team up for an extended stretch, as Ryan had just joined the team that season. Read any fantasy baseball analysis and youre bound to encounter the hitter strikeout rate (or K-percentage) statistic. Johnson was at his peak in his mid-to-late 30s with his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks, as he struck out at least 300 batters every year from 1999-2002. Now we will take a look at how K/BB ratio affects the actual statistics you are looking to compile in fantasy baseball. A big reason why Carlton was able to briefly hold MLBs all-time strikeouts mark was because of his legendary slider. It may not be cool as Roberto Clemente finishing his career with exactly 3,000 hits, but Lefty Grove is one of two pitchers to finish his career with exactly 300 wins. Strikeouts, Walks: Ratio or Differential? A great place to begin with pitchers is to look at their K-BB%. Major league hitters hit .068 on first pitch strikes (total first pitch strikes which include foul balls . Hes struck out 20 batters in a game, thrown two no-hitters, struck out 300 batters in a season, won three Cy Youngs and reached 2,000 career strikeouts faster than all but two pitchers in the history of baseball. "Effective pitching" should be the ultimate focus. The pitcher is a Cy Young candidate, and his ERA sits barely over 2.00. Ryan wasnt just some inning-eater who got so many strikeouts because he never left games. It really is all about OBP% against (similar to WHIP) and ERA. Beyond our fantasy baseball content, be sure to check out our award-winning slate ofFantasy Baseball Toolsas you prepare for your draft this season. He struck out over 300 batters in back-to-back years in 1978 and 1979, becoming just the third pitcher of the modern era to do so. The data I have for a 10U Season shows .972 strikeouts per inning. Strikeouts divided by walks. To keep going in baseball, you have to learn all the time. Its possible that neither pitcher crumbles in the strikeout category, but, if there is a decline, we now see how it would happen. ", Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Kansas City Royals. Because many years ago, Voros McCracken discovered that pitchers have far less control over what happens to the ball after it leaves the bat than we had previously thought. Obviously the 4.52 K/BB (supported by both a strong K/9 and BB/9) of a guy like Johan Santana is excellent, but is the 4.16 K/BB of control pitcher Greg Maddux better than the 2.31 K/BB of power. Actually, I think its baseball. You can see the graph below for actual K% and Whiff/Swing% with the trend line that roughly denotes our "expected K%" or xK%. ", Teams: Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox. That seems like a different article for a different day. The chart below shows the results for the regression comparing K% to each indicator. A pitcher that does not walk a lot of batters clearly throws a lot of strikes, so if you can find one of those pitchers that also strikes out batters at a high rate, it is fair to assume that the pitcher throws hard to hit, effective pitches. So from just that change alone we can expect somewhere around a 12-15 point jump in batting average. I dont like losing, I hate losing. The higher that number, the better. Using the formula our regression spits out for using Whiff/Swing to predict K%, we can develop an "Expected K%" in very rough terms that is K%=.007502+(.85006*Whiff%). "I figured that pitchers had a better chance of getting drafted than fielders, so I decided I should be a pitcher. Focus just on the 5% BB rate portion of the table (league average is 8%, so this is a fair approximation of league average). ", Teams: New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox. Much has been made recently over the growing concern about baseball's addiction to the strikeout. Those are the only two options.". There were 19 lead changes among the three for the record, and Carlton held the lead after the 1983 season. Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. Odds & lines subject to change. During a 1946 game, Feller was clocked at 107.6 miles per hour, which happens to be the second-fastest pitch ever recorded. Moreover, they have a significantly higher wOBA than hitters with lower strikeout rates: As a hitter, allowing yourself to strikeout more does not necessarily lead to more power, but it certainly doesn't hurt your chances. The more a pitcher strikes out the batters he faces, the less dependent he is upon both his defense and pure dumb luck on balls hit to his fielders. My father left me with a saying that I've carried my entire life and tried to pass on to our kids: 'Tough times don't last, tough people do. On the mound stands a pitcher, also very good. He started a full 32 games for the first time in his career, had impressive numbers throughout, but also dropped his fastball velocity to the slowest since his rookie season 2018. He led the league in strikeouts-per-nine-innings 12 times during his Hall of Fame career. ', Teams: Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals. Even though pitchers haven't come close to averaging a complete game per appearance for fifty years, K/9 scales a pitcher's strikeout rate to nine innings. So it is more than simply a matter of putting the ball in play versus not putting the ball in play. Pablo Lopez is the rare example of a player who dropped his strikeout rate significantly from the prior two seasons but posted the highest swinging strike percentage of his career. When I take my kids to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I want them to experience the full array of talents that make the game what it is today, not just the larger-than-life freaks of nature. All told, Morton and Nola were outliers, but they also followed the same trend that counters what was written about the prior group. (Bieber leads the league with 68 strikeouts so far . The Royals are on the verge of returning to relevancy, Morning Mound Visit: Reds sign Tommy Pham to one-year deal, Morning Mound Visit: Ghost runner rule reinstated, Offensive woes will hold back elite pitching in Guardians maiden voyage, Morning Mound Visit: Rockies extend Ryan McMahon. Spread the Love by Sharing! Do Not Sell My Personal Information. But now I am wondering if she still has a lot of work to do (but don't they always.the hard work never really goes away). Division 2 Height: 5'7'' or taller Pitch velocity: 58+ MPH Doing all that earned Koufax the nickname The Left Arm of God. With 2,396 career strikeouts versus 2,324.1 IP, Koufax is one of a handful of starting pitchers to retire with more strikeouts than innings pitched. Plate Discipline Follow @smartfantasybb The origin of his nickname would have been much cooler if he threw a dizzyball, but Dean did have a powerful fastball that often left batters dizzy. Still, when I ran the numbers for 2012 and the period from 2007-2012, I was stunned at just how extreme the results were. Strikeout Rate vs. LHP: 26.6%. Standing 6-foot-10 and throwing over 100 miles per hour, there was perhaps no more intimidating presence on the mound than The Big Unit. Click here for more details. These are the formulae used in determining the statistics calculations: Earned Run Average = Earned Runs * 9 / Innings Pitched. His hard-hit percentage also dipped to the lowest point of his career, so the only piece missing in his arsenal is a raise in strikeout rate. But for some reason, this talking point has become noticeably overstated in baseball circles. While these stats get blended into Wins Above Replacement (WAR) through Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), evaluating pitchers using K% and BB% is very straightforward. A plate appearance can essentially end in four ways: strikeouts, walks, home runs, and balls in play. Expecting your pitcher(s) to strike out batters to mask a weak fielding defense is unrealistic. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, NOTE: It is important to remember that his table does not address the issue of survivor bias. BB/TBF Over the last four years of his career, he won four ERA titles, three strikeout crowns, led the league in wins thrice, won three Cy Young awards, two World Series championships and was an MVP. Not true. I understand K-percentage is, it's not complicated to calculate. It presumably allows you to swing harder, swing quicker, and swing earlier. I am assuming almost all category leagues still use ERA (Earned Run Average), and a lot use WHIP (Walks Plus Hits Per Innings Pitched.