It seems so far this season that our guys have been striking the other teams' players out at a relatively high right. This is anecdotal, however. What's the real story? Is there data to back this up.?
I'm glad you asked.
After pouring over my vast amounts of accumulated data provided to me by iScore on my iPad kept by iMe I have discovered some information in this regard.
Vandy pitchers have struck out 144 batters in the first 11 games, an average of 13.1 per game.
That's pretty amazing in and of itself. It'll obviously subside a bit once we get to the meat of our schedule (which begins next weekend, btw.)
Of those 144 strikes outs 49 were called third strikes---an astounding 34%. 1 of every 3.
Of course, the ump controls a lot of this and we've had some pretty atrocious HP umps in some of our games, but I'm guessing maybe just 2 of them. But, they've called it the same both ways so that's not that big of a deal.
I've always noticed a lot of players still continue to violate Rule 23.b.c(3) of the Official Rules of baseball:
If said player takes the pitch when the count is full at 3-2, said player is to remain in place without flinching a muscle until the umpire's call is made. Otherwise, should the player make a move toward first base that in any way makes the umpire think the player is trying to make the call of a "ball", said player will be rung up by said umpire in an embarrassing manner and will be called out on strike 3 regardless of whether the pitch was a strike or not, just so long as it's within 6 inches of the strike zone. Failure to abide by this rule subjects the batter to taunts from fans in the stands as well as an unfriendly glare from their coach in the dugout. No fan may be ejected from the stadium for such behavior unless they use profanity or demean the batters' parentage.
It constantly amazes me at how many batters, despite having played competitive baseball for at least 10 years of their young lives, continue to violate this rule.
Beyond that, our pitchers are mowing them down left and right at a dizzying pace. The K Card Keeper on centerfield (I know who it is but I'll refrain from saying their name without their expressed written permission) is often very tired at the end of a game from getting up, walking to the spot 30 yards away, hanging the sign, and then returning to their seat in the right field bleachers.
Top performers in that regard for Vandy:
1. Luke Murphy 100% (2 of 2)
2. Tyler Brown 80% (4 of 5)
3. Erik Kaiser Wilhelm 38% (3 of 8)
Those, of course, are very small sample sizes @PhilipVU94 tells me (through ESP, not in person) so we'll hold those in reserve with respect to proving our anecdotal observation to be a correct one.
Continuing:
3. Michael "Dealin'" Doolin 73% (8 of 11) -- still not a tremendous sample size but getting there
Now for substantive sample sizes:
4. Jake "Not the Fat Man" Eder (6 of 14)
5. Jack "Al Junior" Leiter 31% (5 of 16)
6. Mason-Dixon Hickman 30% (11 of 26)
In those 3 cases one might note each has a "knee-buckling breaking ball" which would be an astute observation IMHO, thus accounting for having totally fooled the batter into swinging.
We have 3 guys who totally violate this observation:
7. Ethan Smith 22% (4 of 18)
8. Kumar "NoNo" Rocker 10% (2 of 20)
9. Sam "I Am" Hliboki 1-11 (1 of 11)
In those 3 cases one might note they have an awesome fast ball and slider. They simply overpower the hitter with pitching finesse and Ha-Ha-Try-To-Hit-This pitches.
Take those 3 out of the mix and the team Called Strike 3 Rate increases to 44% !!!!!!
I am stunned beyond even when my first child was born and I was there to witness that miracle of life.
QED, as the Romans would say. Quod erat demonstratum for the non-Latin speakers out there.
(I learned (studied?) Latin in the 9th grade and have yet to be able to speak it to this day in a normal conversation with another person -- even so, I also know what a lot of Latin-derived words mean when others are totally stumped when taking their PSAT, SAT, ACT, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, or GRE.)
**Quod erat demonstratum means "I have proven what I set out to prove but I'm still waiting for Euclid to review my work before stating my case with 100% confidence, using a 95% confidence interval with 13 degrees of freedom as we have 13 pitchers on staff."
I'm glad you asked.
After pouring over my vast amounts of accumulated data provided to me by iScore on my iPad kept by iMe I have discovered some information in this regard.
Vandy pitchers have struck out 144 batters in the first 11 games, an average of 13.1 per game.
That's pretty amazing in and of itself. It'll obviously subside a bit once we get to the meat of our schedule (which begins next weekend, btw.)
Of those 144 strikes outs 49 were called third strikes---an astounding 34%. 1 of every 3.
Of course, the ump controls a lot of this and we've had some pretty atrocious HP umps in some of our games, but I'm guessing maybe just 2 of them. But, they've called it the same both ways so that's not that big of a deal.
I've always noticed a lot of players still continue to violate Rule 23.b.c(3) of the Official Rules of baseball:
If said player takes the pitch when the count is full at 3-2, said player is to remain in place without flinching a muscle until the umpire's call is made. Otherwise, should the player make a move toward first base that in any way makes the umpire think the player is trying to make the call of a "ball", said player will be rung up by said umpire in an embarrassing manner and will be called out on strike 3 regardless of whether the pitch was a strike or not, just so long as it's within 6 inches of the strike zone. Failure to abide by this rule subjects the batter to taunts from fans in the stands as well as an unfriendly glare from their coach in the dugout. No fan may be ejected from the stadium for such behavior unless they use profanity or demean the batters' parentage.
It constantly amazes me at how many batters, despite having played competitive baseball for at least 10 years of their young lives, continue to violate this rule.
Beyond that, our pitchers are mowing them down left and right at a dizzying pace. The K Card Keeper on centerfield (I know who it is but I'll refrain from saying their name without their expressed written permission) is often very tired at the end of a game from getting up, walking to the spot 30 yards away, hanging the sign, and then returning to their seat in the right field bleachers.
Top performers in that regard for Vandy:
1. Luke Murphy 100% (2 of 2)
2. Tyler Brown 80% (4 of 5)
3. Erik Kaiser Wilhelm 38% (3 of 8)
Those, of course, are very small sample sizes @PhilipVU94 tells me (through ESP, not in person) so we'll hold those in reserve with respect to proving our anecdotal observation to be a correct one.
Continuing:
3. Michael "Dealin'" Doolin 73% (8 of 11) -- still not a tremendous sample size but getting there
Now for substantive sample sizes:
4. Jake "Not the Fat Man" Eder (6 of 14)
5. Jack "Al Junior" Leiter 31% (5 of 16)
6. Mason-Dixon Hickman 30% (11 of 26)
In those 3 cases one might note each has a "knee-buckling breaking ball" which would be an astute observation IMHO, thus accounting for having totally fooled the batter into swinging.
We have 3 guys who totally violate this observation:
7. Ethan Smith 22% (4 of 18)
8. Kumar "NoNo" Rocker 10% (2 of 20)
9. Sam "I Am" Hliboki 1-11 (1 of 11)
In those 3 cases one might note they have an awesome fast ball and slider. They simply overpower the hitter with pitching finesse and Ha-Ha-Try-To-Hit-This pitches.
Take those 3 out of the mix and the team Called Strike 3 Rate increases to 44% !!!!!!
I am stunned beyond even when my first child was born and I was there to witness that miracle of life.
QED, as the Romans would say. Quod erat demonstratum for the non-Latin speakers out there.
(I learned (studied?) Latin in the 9th grade and have yet to be able to speak it to this day in a normal conversation with another person -- even so, I also know what a lot of Latin-derived words mean when others are totally stumped when taking their PSAT, SAT, ACT, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, or GRE.)
**Quod erat demonstratum means "I have proven what I set out to prove but I'm still waiting for Euclid to review my work before stating my case with 100% confidence, using a 95% confidence interval with 13 degrees of freedom as we have 13 pitchers on staff."
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