Baseball Toaster: The Griddle : An enlightening look at Pitch F/X

Rank	Team	W	L	PCT	Division
1	Chicago Cubs	97	64	.602	C1
2	Philadelphia	92	70	.568	E1
3	Los Angeles Dodgers	84	78	.519	W1
4	Milwaukee	90	72	.556	C2
5	New York Mets	89	73	.549	E2
6	Houston	86	75	.534	C3
7	St. Louis	86	76	.531	C4
8	Florida	84	77	.522	E3
9	Arizona	82	80	.506	W2
10T	Colorado	74	88	.457	W3
10T	Cincinnati	74	88	.457	C5
12T	Atlanta	72	90	.444	E4
12T	San Francisco	72	90	.444	W4
14	Pittsburgh	67	95	.414	C6
15	San Diego	63	99	.389	W5
16	Washington	59	102	.366	E5

American League

Rank	Team	W	L	PCT	Division
1	Los Angeles Angels	100	62	.617	W1
2	Tampa Bay	97	65	.599	E1
3	Chicago White Sox	89	74	.546	C1
4	Boston	95	67	.586	E2
5	New York Yankees	89	73	.549	E3
6	Minnesota	88	75	.540	C2
7	Toronto	86	76	.531	E4
8	Cleveland	81	81	.500	C3
9	Texas	79	83	.488	W2
10	Oakland	75	86	.466	W3
11	Kansas City	75	87	.463	C4
12	Detroit	74	88	.457	C5
13	Baltimore	68	93	.422	E5
14	Seattle	61	101	.377	W4

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New York

W L GB

Yankees 89 73

Mets 89 73

Baltimore/DC

W L GB

X - Orioles 68 93

Nationals 59 102 9

Chicago

W L GB

X - Cubs 97 64

White Sox 89 74 9

LA/Orange County

W L GB

X - Angels 100 62

Dodgers 84 78 16

SF/Oakland

W L GB

X - Athletics 76 85

Giants 72 90 4.5

X - Clinched

So long and thanks for playing this year

1. Washington (8/31)
2. Seattle (9/1)
3. Pittsburgh (9/6) *
3. San Diego (9/6) *
5. Baltimore (9/8)
6. Oakland (9/8)
7. Atlanta (9/9)
8. Kansas City (9/9)
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13. Colorado (9/18)
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16. New York Yankees (9/23)
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21. New York Mets (9/28)
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25. Chicago White Sox (10/6)
26. Los Angeles Angels (10/6)
27. Los Angeles Dodgers (10/15)
28. Boston (10/19)
29. Tampa Bay (10/29)

* - Teams eliminated at same time

The last batter to reach on catcher's interference was ...

Seth McClung of Milwaukee by Koyie Hill of the Cubs on September 26, 2008.

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An enlightening look at Pitch F/X

2008-07-21 22:36

by Bob Timmermann

Cory Schwartz of MLB.com interviewed Prof. Alan Nathan of the University of Illinois about his presentation at the most recent SABR convention about Pitch F/x. It's a video of a little under four minutes and is quite enlightening.

One of Nathan's conclusions is that one of the most important aspects of pitching is not speed and not the amount of break, but rather location.

Comments

2008-07-22 02:26:18

1. trainwreck

That was enlightening and I am sure there are teams out there working on getting this info to their managers and pitching coaches to decide when to pull a pitcher or make an adjustment and that can only improve the game.

The inside/outside information seems so simple and logical, but I just had never really thought about it.

2008-07-22 03:05:38

2. PDH5204

"[first question]: Are there any theories or traditional notions about baseball that you think have been proven or perhaps disproven by the use of the Pitch F/x data?

[our man]: One of my favorite ones is the thing about the late-breaking curveball, or the late-breaking pitch. I've always felt that physics ought to be able to describe trajectories as being fairly smooth, and indeed, I think if you look at the trajectories of these pitches, they all are rather smooth trajectories."

Physics. All I've ever asked for.

Re things fairly smooth and what we ought to expect with respect to the same, well, given a very nearly uniform force acting on the ball once the ball is beyond pitcher influence, how could things not be fairly smooth? Now if a bird were to contact a ball in flight...