February 5, 2021
I’m going to spend about half this article trying to deceive you. I just thought you should know that upfront. Why? Alex Chamberlain wrote a wonderful article about Kyle Hendricks yesterday, and it reminded me of one of my favorite paradoxical findings about pitching. Now, I’m going to use that finding to bamboozle you or at least, that’s the plan.
Hendricks, you see, is spectacular at throwing pitches in the shadow zone, the boundaries of the strike zone and the area just outside of it. That’s an obviously useful skill. When you watch a pitcher painting the corners, it doesn’t just feel like hitters are unlikely to make solid contact, it’s actually true. Batters have worse outcomes on the borderline part of the plate than in any other zone.
BCB Interview: Cubs play-by-play announcer Jon ‘Boog’ Sciambi
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Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
I had the chance to talk with new Cubs TV play-by-play voice Jon ‘Boog’ Sciambi this week. We talked about topics ranging from his nickname to how he views working advance statistics into broadcasts to the viral video he recorded of a baseball game in New York’s Central Park last month.
He’s going to be great, he was a fantastic hire by Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
AY: You were nicknamed “Boog” years ago. Do you prefer that, as opposed to your given name?
February 4, 2021
You know it’s almost time for baseball season when all of the major projection systems forecast Kyle Hendricks‘ ERA one run per nine innings too high.
As much as this sounds like a knock on those who develop projections, it’s not. What Jared Cross (Steamer), Dan Szymborski (ZiPS), Derek Carty (THE BAT), and the folks at
Baseball Prospectus (PECOTA) do is no small feat. If I weren’t too cowardly to even try to create my own projection system, I would be too stupid to design one that is half as effective as theirs. Glass houses and all that.
An in-depth look at how Joc Pederson might hit against lefthanded pitching
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Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
I was discussing the Joc Pederson signing with a number of other SB Nation writers and editors and Ivan, a writer/editor at our SB Nation Braves site Talking Chop, offered me a detailed statistical analysis of how Joc might do against lefthanders playing for the Cubs in Wrigley Field.
I turn the rest of this post over to Ivan for that analysis, and thank him for this terrific detailed writeup.
On Friday, news broke that the Chicago Cubs signed outfielder Joc Pederson to a one-year deal worth $7 million. This came across as fairly strange (to me, anyway) for a couple of reasons at the time, and another that manifested itself slightly later.
It’s the biggest moment in the game, the opponent’s best slugger is at the plate and the pitcher needs to come up with his best offering. What does he throw? Pitchers and catchers have binders full of scouting reports telling them that answer. But with a handful of baseball’s best