Mike Sonne

Science and Baseball

Tag: Stuff

Emergency Night before Pitch Talks Stuff Report

September 8, 2016 / / 0 Comments

stuff-report

It has come to my attention that, while updating the Blue Jays Stuff report over at BP Toronto, I have neglected the MLB stuff report on this site. No time like the night before Pitch Talks to fill everyone in on who has the best stuff in the MLB!

Starting Pitchers

The man remains entrenched at the top of his loft perch – Jake Arrieta has the best stuff of all starting pitchers in Major League Baseball.  In fact, the top three are quite significantly higher than anyone else – Arrieta, Syndergaard, and Strasburg are the only starters who have flirted with the mythical 2.0 mark on the Stuff report all season long. For Jays fans, I would like to present how Syndergaard sits near the top of this list, and down at #108… well, you can guess who.

The top starting staffs all reside in Chicago, with the Cubs at #1, and the White Sox at #2. This goes to show – stuff isn’t everything. The cubs are closing in on a 100 win season and the White Sox… well, they’re fighting to steer clear of the Twins at the bottom of the central.

Relief Pitchers

Chapman still sits at number 1, but Mauricio Cabrera seems hellbent on taking the reliever Stuff crown. Both of these arms have an average fastball velocity of over 100mph. That’s their AVERAGE fastball. To make it worse? They can both drop it down into the 80’s when they need to.

As for Bullpens, the Red Sox – buoyed by the electric arm of Craig Kimbrel – have risen to the top of the Stuff rankings. The Cubs are close behind, and the Jays lurk in fourth.


 

Are you coming to Pitch Talks? Do you have your tickets? If you order your tickets online, use the promo code “stuff” to get $5 off your ticket. See you there!

Who has the best stuff in baseball? – Volume 3

May 16, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Welcome to the third installment of the stuff report. It’s kind of like Stuff’s return of the jedi – except with way less ewoks.

A couple of small changes this time around – to make the metric a bit more of a true leaderboard, I’ve implemented some inclusion criteria. For one, starters will only appear of they’ve made as many appearances as there have been weeks in the season. For relievers, they’ve had to have appeared in as many games as there have been weeks in the season. For the team averages, I’ve gone to a weighted average of stuff, based off the number of innings pitchers have thrown. So, for every team – every pitcher who has thrown any proprotion of an inning, has their Stuff score multiplied by the percentage of total innings their team has pitched. For example, if a pitcher has a stuff score of 1.0, has thrown 10 innings, and their team has thrown 100 total innings – their weighted contribution to the team’s stuff score would be:

Weighted Stuff = Stuff * (pitcher innings/total innings)

0.1 = 1.0 * (10 innings / 100 innings)

The sum of all pitcher’s weighted stuff scores are added together, to give a total for each team.

Starting Pitchers

 Compared to Volume 2 of the stuff report, there has been some significant subtractions from the list. Garret Richards and Chris Bassitt – both with elite stuff – have gone on the disabled list with elbow injuries, and will require Tommy John surgery. This leaves Noah Syndergaard and Jake Arrieta at the top of the leaderboard – somewhat running away from the rest of the pack. Their season average stuff has decreased in the past two weeks, but in both cases, the decline has been very small.

The best Stuff of any starting staff still belongs to the Mets. The Phillies also have a very exciting young pitching staff – and their top 5 ranking in the Starting Staff Stuff Metric gives a lot of reasons for hope in Philadelphia. Pulling up the rear of the starting staffs are the Blue Jays – though their Starting Pitcher’s performances this season have been amongst the very best in the league.

Relief Pitchers


Kelvin Herrera remains a very, very bad man at the top of the list of relief pitchers. Second on that list is Pirates reliever, Arquimedes Caminero. He has the best name in the bigs, and the second best stuff of all relief pitchers.

Throwing 99mph really does favour well for having your stuff rank highly.

With the weighted average for Stuff – the Cubs currently have the best bullpen in baseball. The dominance the Cubs have shown so far has allowed them to not rely on their bullpen as much as other teams, but as the season wears on – it looks like they will have yet another weapon to unleash on the National League. As Arolids Chapman pitchers more innings for the Yankees – you can expect that bullpen to rise up in the ranks as well.

 

Who has the best Stuff in Baseball? – Volume 2

May 2, 2016 / / 0 Comments

As April comes to a close, the MLB season starts to pick up steam. Blue Jays fans eagerly await a game where they aren’t sitting under a roof. All baseball fans sit and wonder though… which Pitcher has the best stuff in baseball? You’re in the right place.

Starting Pitchers

Individual Pitchers


A bit of a somber start to this edition of the best Stuff in baseball, as our current leader, Chris Bassitt, has been put on the DL with elbow issues. Chris was roughed up by the Blue Jays in his last start, and news surfaced about the pain he’s been dealing with in his elbow. I hope for nothing other than a quick return to health for Chris. One of the most interesting debuts on this list belongs to Blake Snell – the Rays top pitching prospect. His debut against the Yankees resulted in exceptional stuff. Check out this curveball he used against Brian McCann.

Starting Staffs

The Mets assume their rightful place at the top of the MLB’s best Stuff rankings. Lead by Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, the Mets have the most elite stuff of any starting pitching staff. It looks like I’m not alone in thinking this.

Relief Pitchers

Individual Pitchers

The best stuff of any reliever belongs to Kelvin Herrera from the Royals. Herrera has long received praise from analysts, and with his elite fastball and massive amount of breaking distance, it’s not a big surprise.

In the AL East, it’s a bit scary to see how many elite relievers there are – with Craig Kimbrel getting better by the end of April, and Chapman still on the horizon.

Bullpens

The Royals bullpen continues to wear the crown for the best stuff of any relief corps. It will be interesting to see what happens when Arolids Chapman returns from the Suspended list – as not only do Bettances and Miller have elite Stuff, but John Barbato sits near the top of the list. The Yankees are aiming to play 5 inning baseball games.

What is Stuff?

What is Stuff

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