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Post by juggs on Apr 10, 2013 12:09:02 GMT -5
It appears at first glance over the first week that the strike zone has been expanded a little bit, based on the number of KOs/9 thus far and my naked eye watching games. In our 20 team 5x5 standard league, the KOs/9 rate thus far for drafted pitchers (approx 215 or so) is over 8.14 KOs per nine. The average KO/9 rate in our league annually is in the 7.3- 7.5 range based on a 1500 IP limit so the 8.14 is high comparitively. So last night I was watching SD reliever Dale Thayer getting squeezed on some great pitches on the corner, so I don't know what to think now.
Is MLB up to something with the zone, are the umps just rusty, or are the hitters just that far behind the pitchers right now?
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Post by Jonathan Stulberg on Apr 10, 2013 12:44:09 GMT -5
That's a great question/observation Juggs!
My initial reaction is simply that it's early. As a guy who played baseball growing up, I know I hated to hit when the weather was below around 50 degrees so you're probably seeing some early season woes in that regard. Looking at league averages, last year in March/April the average was around 7.36 per 9 innings and thus far this year it's 7.75. You also have some abnormalities in that a guy like Roy Halladay is second in the league in K/9 rate but his ERA is actually the same as his K-rate!! He's also allowing a HR on 42.9% of fly balls allowed. Things should normalize as the season goes on.
That all being said, if you take a look at the video of the called third-strike for Joe Nathan's 300 career save, you might see another reason why the K-rate is so high. Wow!
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Post by dcorreale on Apr 11, 2013 8:58:35 GMT -5
It might be better to look at K/batter rate, vs K/9 rate. Halladay has a high k/9 because he has faced so many batters, i.e. pitched poorly.
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