In the beginning

Baseball: it's a game steeped in tradition, yet at the same time is ever-increasingly a game about data, statistics, and analysis. Being a baseball fan from the Toronto area, I'm predominantly a Blue Jays fan, but will watch just about any game at any time. MLB.tv is a godsend. I also have an unhealthy, relationship-destroying love of fantasy baseball. I'll touch on real and fantasy baseball topics in this blog. I hope you'll join me for the ride and promise to make this thing look a touch spiffier at some point.

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Rich Hill Pretty Much Abandoned His Fastball

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I don’t think I’m telling tales outside of school to say that Rich Hill throws his curveball a lot. In 2016, for example, he threw it literally half the time. With good reason too: amongst major league starters who threw at least 100 innings, it ranked 3 rd in Pitch/FX’s pitch value metric behind the late great Jose Fernandez and the just great Corey Kluber. By shirking tradition and using the curve as his primary pitch, Hill managed elite numbers through his injury-shortened season: 10.5 k/9 and just 2.7 bb/9 supporting a 2.12 ERA (backed up by a 2.39 FIP). He may have gotten a little bit lucky with just a 0.33 HR/9 allowed, but there’s no denying that curveball is tough to square up. This leads to the central reason for writing this post. Rich Hill made his season debut last night with the Dodgers and while watching the game I thought that he was throwing a lot of curveballs, even for him. Here’s a second inning at bat against rookie Hunter Renfroe, in which the black dot represe...
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10 Bold Predictions

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