2037: Whiff Differentials

[RonCo]

There’s a school of thought that says a strikeout is no worse tan any other out, and on the whole that might be true. Or it might not. But the series that I’ve grown here isn’t interested so much in that kind of question as it is in asking how the gray spaces between hitter and pitcher performance among the teams, and in this light, the strikeout plot is interesting enough that I’m not sure exactly what to make of it.

You know the drill, right? I took each team’s hitting strikeouts and pitching strikeouts and plotted them as a point, then looked for folks off the 50/50 mediocrity line.

I’m intrigued.

First, here’s the chart:

2037-KBat-KPit.PNG (17.3 KiB) Viewed 436 times

When we do this, we see super-team Rockville being the dominant squad on the plus side, with Brooklyn right behind. That’s interesting. The Robins exceeded Pythagorean expectations this year (they scored and gave up exactly 712 runs), yet they went to the post season. Is this K-dif domination part of the reason, or what: Dunno. Interesting again is that Mexico City and Omaha were next on the outlier chart. These two went to the playoffs, Omaha also exceeding their expected wins, and Mexico City making it only after a long wind-up.

Does anything jump out at you?

Where’s California? San Fernando? Jacksonville? Edmonton? Am I right?

Of the league’s current super teams, only Rockville hits this chart as a plus-side driver. Their hitters were the league’s hardest to strike out, and their pitchers were second to Brooklyn’s, meaning they dominated the strike out game every time they hit the field. The other Super teams did their damage in other ways (we’ve already seen them in the power numbers). Again, I’m not sure what this means but I’m getting a serious crush for how Aaron’s gone about building his juggernaut.

Anyway…

Looking at the backside of this chart is interesting, too, specifically as an indicator for just how big if a hill Charm City’s hitters made for themselves, and because we can see, for the first time, a hole in a contender in that Phoenix shows up here. Much has been written about their tough luck with pitching injuries. I suggest that one of the mechanics for how this issue manifested itself on the field is right here. Phoenix’s philosophy has never been one to worry about the K, too, which you can see hasn’t changed. And how about Huntsville? Is this differential why they struggled at times? Note Vancouver again, too. Their hitters disn't K much, but their pitchers squandered that skillset.

Anyway, here’s the full list if you want to find your favorite team [grin]

Team K K-P
Rockville Pikemen 834 1324
Omaha Hawks 849 1113
Mexico City Aztecs 874 1181
Valencia Stars 998 1141
Brooklyn Robins 1011 1404
Madison Wolves 1022 1182
Nashville Goats 1025 1134
Wichita Aviators 1048 1107
Calgary Pioneers 1050 1173
Vancouver Mounties 1063 927
Montreal Blazers 1080 1250
Edmonton Jackrabbits 1094 1134
Yellow Springs Nine 1097 1260
San Antonio Outlaws 1124 1131
Long Beach Surfers 1125 1262
Hawaii Tropics 1158 1045
Las Vegas Hustlers 1160 1242
Twin Cities River Monsters 1174 1153
New Orleans Crawdads 1175 1061
Boise Spuds 1184 977
San Fernando Bears 1207 1295
Louisville Sluggers 1226 953
Jacksonville Hurricanes 1228 1214
Atlantic City Gamblers 1232 1083
Seattle Storm 1310 1220
California Crusaders 1331 1204
Huntsville Phantoms 1343 1007
Phoenix Talons 1349 1112
Des Moines Kernels 1425 1040
Charm City Jimmies 1583 1050

[crobillard]

I love this series you're doing with the graph. I like seeing where my little dot is.

[RonCo]

Thanks!

I wasn't really planning on doing it, but when I looked at the first chart I did while fiddling around I had fun looking for my little dot, too, so I figured someone else would.

[GoldenOne]

Its a good thing you labeled some of them because Randy usually ends up spending a lot of time looking for his little dot.

[RonCo]

Its a good thing you labeled some of them because Randy usually ends up spending a lot of time looking for his little dot.

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