Author: metbaseball

Hockey Violence: Fighting

Posted on by metbaseball

The amount of information on the Internet about fighting in hockey reflects the interest level in the topic. On December 21, 2021, the USA TODAY  webpage titled “NHL fights from the 2021-22 season” contains 89 photos through December 19, 2021. 

Even more information about each fight can be found on the Hockey Fights website. The homepage has a table listing 114 “total fights” under the heading “2022 NHL Fight Stats,” which is for the 2021-2022 season, and a section “Featured Fights.”

On December 22, the featured fight was between Nathan Beaulieu and Dakota Joshua. 

Clicking the fight’s photo takes you to a page that shows whom site members voted the fight’s winner. Bealieu got 89.7%, Joshua 10.3%. No one voted it a draw. 

In the Voting Results table, by clicking either fighter’s name you get a listing of that fighter’s “latest fights.” For Beaulieu the list contains 10 fights, the earliest in 2018. Also on that page is his “Year By Year Fight Totals,” the teams he fought for and against, and the players with whom he fought.

Despite the interest in fighting in hockey, discourse over whether the sport is better off without it continues.

Should fighting be banned?

This issue is raised on procon.org. Each side’s argument presents three reasons. Here are the reasons given for allowing fighting in hockey:

  1. “Allowing fighting makes the sport safer overall by holding players accountable.
  2. Fighting draws fans and increases the game’s entertainment value.
  3. Fighting is a hockey tradition that exists in the official rules and as an unwritten code among players.”

Which side presents the stronger argument?

Which position do you support? Why?

Stathead School: Get Home Game Info

Posted on by metbaseball

For this search, you need to use Stathead Baseball’s Split Finders tool. It can be used to get both player and team data for both batting and pitching. When used for team batting, you can search one or multiple seasons. As I just wanted the data for a single season, I did a single season search.

Here is how to use Stathead Baseball to get the results in the above tweet.

  1. Go to Split Finders > Team Batting.
  2. Set Sort By to Descending and OBP.
  3. Make Seasons “2021 to 2021”.
  4. For Choose Split Type, select Home or Away.
  5. For Choose A Split, select Home.
  6. Under Team Filters, click or tap Choose a Team Filter.
  7. Then, click or tap Team.
  8. Click or tap Any Team
  9. Select New York Mets.
  10. Click or tap Get Results.

Under Current Search, you should see this:
▶︎ In the Regular Season, in 2021, For NYM, In the AL or NL or FL, Home (within Home or Away), sorted by greatest On-Base%.

To get the away game data, repeat the above steps, making this one change:
5. For Choose A Split, select Away.

View the Stathead results for home games and away games..

Mets trade for oldest MLB pitcher

Posted on by metbaseball

The Mets just traded two players to the Tampa Bay Rays for Rich Hill who, at 41, is the oldest pitcher in Major League Baseball and the second-oldest player, the oldest Albert Pujols.

In 19 games this season, all starts, Hill has pitched best the first and third times in a game he has faced an opposing team’s batters. Then, they hit only .190 and .164 against him, but during his second time through a lineup they hit .276 with a .530 slugging percentage. See table below.

Source: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=hillri01&year=2021&t=p

The data in the table reveal that his best role could be either as an opener or a reliever. However, it is likely that the Mets will mainly use him as a starter.

Hill has done better against left-handed batters, holding them to a .158 batting average. In contrast, right-handed batters hit .232 against him, still low but 74 points higher.

Against his fastball, his most frequently thrown pitch, batters hit .257, 71 points higher than their BA (.186) against his breaking pitches — but they were not his most effective pitches. Those were his off-speed pitches with a .143 BA.

His average pitch velocity this season of 80.6 mph is his second-lowest since 2015. His hard-hit% is higher than in any previous Statcast season: 6.4%.

In 2021, he has thrown 785 fastballs, 623 breaking balls, and 41 off-speed pitches.

Hill has been much more effective when pitching without any runners on base. Then, batters are hitting just .203. With runners on base, opposing batters’ BA jumps 47 points to .250.

He last pitched on July 18 against the Braves. In 4 IP, he gave up six hits, three earned runs, and two walks, while striking out four.

A closer needs to shut the door, not open them

Posted on by metbaseball

In a clutch situation, a closer need to shut the door, not allow the opponent to open and then run through them. The latter is what happened in yesterday’s Mets-Pirates game.

Photo by Filip Kominik on Unsplash

The victim: Edwin Diaz.

Let’s start by looking at his ERA as the season has progressed:
– April: 2.00
– May: 3.97
– June: 2.38
– July: 12.60

Over the past 30 days, his performance based on his ERA has been on the decline.
– Last 30 days: 8.38
– Last 15 days: 12.60
– Last 7 days: 27.00

In particular this season, Diaz’s performance in away games has been worse than in home games.
– Home ERA: 2.45
– Away ERA: 6.75

In home games, his record is 3-1; whereas, in away games it is 0-3. Similarly, in day games, his record is 3-1; whereas, in night games it is 0-3.

Even more surprising are his slash lines for right- and left-handed batters.
– Against right-handed batters: .275/.351/.362
– Against left-handed batters: .175/.303/.222

Diaz is at his best on two-strike counts.
– 0-2: .200 (BA)
– 1-2: .065
– 2-2: .200
– 3-2: .077

With regard to the effectiveness of his pitches, the run value when he throws his slider is -6; whereas, against his fastball it is +6. Run value reveals a pitch’s impact. The lower the value, the better.

Further, when he throws the slider, batters are hitting .180 with a .213 SLG, but when he throws his four-seamer, batters are hitting .268 with a .366 SLG. Those are the only two pitches Diaz has thrown this season with 63.1% of them four-seamers and 36.9% sliders.

Based on the above data, Diaz is at his best when he does not fall behind in the count, throws more sliders than four-seamers, faces left-handed batters, and pitches in home day games.

The data in this post is from espn.com and baseballsavant.com