Heed the 1-1

Baseball Prospectus | Unfiltered

I link here to mock, though I don’t know (and this post doesn’t help me) how meaningful it is to get a better or worse count at 1-1. It sure seems like it helped the Red Sox against the Angels to go 2-1 (vs 1-2), but we’re talking skimpy samples.  Even if this is an amazing discovery, this post does not satisfy. And I suspect it isn’t really an amazing discovery at all.

3 thoughts on “Heed the 1-1”

  1. Yeah, I guess so. But in every situation it’s better to throw a strike than a ball, as long as the ball isn’t hit, so as analytical advice this seems too obvious to say (especially when pointing out that the Red Sox hitters are particularly good at converting 1-1 counts based on one three game series).

  2. I seem to remember DePodesta (or someone) saying the difference between throwing a ball or strike at 1-1 was the biggest in terms of opposing batters’ OBP/SLG (or something like that)… anyways, not very well communicated in the BP post. Good call.

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