Fangraphs: Chapman, Rondon, and Two Types of 100
Jeff Sullivan compares the two hardest throwing pitchers in the major leagues -- Arolids Chapman and Detroit's Bruce Rondon. Chapman throws faster than the Tigers' reliever, but Rondon hits 100 MPH in a greater percentage of his pitches. Rondon's average fastball is a bit faster than Chapman's. Despite these similarities, the two pitchers use their fastballs in different ways, leading to different results. Chapman throws his heater up in the zone more than Rondon does. While the fastball is the primary pitch for both pitchers, Chapman has far better secondary stuff with his devastating slider whereas Rondon's off-speed pitches lack effectiveness. These differences show up in the numbers as well. Chapman has struck out 15.6 batters per nine innings while Rondon has whiffed only 8.8 batters per nine.
Terence Moore: Greatest dynasty? No topping Big Red Machine
Moore believes that the 1976 Reds are the greatest team of all-time. He skims over the Big Red Machine's relative lack of starting pitching, but otherwise it's an interesting article.
Tango Tiger: 2013 Fans Scouting Report
Each year, Tango asks baseball fans across the Internet to rate the defense of players on their favorite team(s). At the end of the project, he uses the results to determine how many runs each fielder saved. The numbers are available year-round on Fangraphs in each player's "Fans Scouting Report" section near the bottom of the page. If you are wary of modern defensive metrics such as UZR, DRS, Total Zone Rating, etc., then this project might interest you as the results are based completely on the eyes of real baseball fans.
Tango needs our help so that he has enough data with which to work. The readers of this blog watch as much Reds baseball as anybody, so please take a few minutes to click the link, read the directions, and fill out a ballot. It's a quick, painless process. As of now, there are only five ballots for the Reds (and one of them is mine), so let's help out Tango.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Among players with at least 500 career high leverage PA's, Joey Votto's .348 batting average is the best since 1946.(1st year of data)</p>— Neal Kendrick (@funbaseballfact) <a href="https://twitter.com/funbaseballfact/statuses/378419588871888896">September 13, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Here's an explanation of leverage index.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>NL central is STL 57, PIT 33, CIN 10. WAS playoff shot still at 2.2</p>— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) <a href="https://twitter.com/DSzymborski/statuses/378364020778369024">September 13, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Dan Szymborski updates us on ZiPS' NL Central odds.