The Case Against K/9 and BB/9

First Inning

The hed makes it sound radical, but this is really a quite useful and meaningful tweak. If you want to know how many batters a pitcher strikes out and walks (and you do), better measures are the percentages of each outcome compared to batters faced. The writer says the average pitcher strikes out 15 percent of batters faced and walks eight percent.

I’ve always tried to make this adjustment on the fly, when doing analysis, but this is a good argument for using the real numbers as a percentage rather than the per game ones.

1 thought on “The Case Against K/9 and BB/9”

  1. Good stuff.

    Question? Does that 15% – 8% represent all professional pitchers (A ball on up) or just major leaguers? And if it’s all pitchers, how does it shake out at the major league level only?

    I suppose I should be asking that guy, huh?

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