Early Pitch Mix Changes, 2024
May 8 2024
A core tenet of player evaluation here at BaseballHQ is to ignore the surface-level stats and focus on skills instead. But at this early stage of the season, how do we know which changes in SKILLS might be more likely to stick around all year, and which ones are just variance after a handful of starts?
Tracking pitch-level data (usage, velocity, whiff rates) with Statcast is increasingly becoming a go-to in our quest to jump on breakout seasons, as someone showing a change in skill AND a change in approach has a better chance to stick all season. So this week, we'll revisit Change Score, which is the total change in pitch usage from 2023 to 2024 across a pitcher's entire arsenal.
A quick example of how Change Score works: if Tarik...
Almost!
You’re just a few clicks away from accessing this feature and hundreds more throughout the year that have a singular goal in mind: Winning your league. Subscribe to BaseballHQ.com here!
Already a subscriber? Sign in here
More From Speculator
Our annual Opening Day Eve exercise at category leaders who went outside the Top 200 this draft season.
Mar 26 2025 3:09am
Mar 26 2025 3:09am
They come from all stages of the draft. We'll use history as our guide to speculate on this season's Top 15 players.
Mar 19 2025 3:10am
Mar 19 2025 3:10am
Applying some of Flaherty's pre-breakout traits to this year's player pool.
Mar 12 2025 3:05am
Mar 12 2025 3:05am
We'll apply some lessons learned from last year's pool to speculate on this year's breakouts.
Mar 5 2025 3:09am
Mar 5 2025 3:09am
Landmines are littered throughout the draft pool, even in the early rounds. We'll take a speculative look at which are most likely to bust.
Feb 26 2025 3:08am
Feb 26 2025 3:08am
