Mid Season Pitching

This is the last (maybe) of the mid season posts. This one will look at some pitching stats. These may not be nearly as conclusive but should offer a little insight into how each team compares.

How Much Can You Eat?

Unlike the hitting categories, pitching is not about how many innings you can pitch, but rather how well you manage the innings against your opponent. There is hardly a week that goes by that at least one if not several managers will purposely sit pitchers due to matchups or just to preserve leads in categories.

Below is a chart that is listed in order of innings pitched for the season. Also I have included # of pitching decisions. Pitching decisions is the combined total of W's, + L's + Saves. I decided to do it this way because  RP are a very integral part of our pitching stats and can get L's so we might as well count the S's as well.

Win% is the total of Win's  + Saves / # Decisions. Maybe not the best way to measure pitching success but at least it makes for an interesting comparison.  The last column is Pitching Roto Standing (Pit Roto) The highlighted teams are thop 6 teams in each category/



As you can see, there is very little correlation between innings pitched and Win% or Pitching Roto Standings.  This seems to me to support the argument that pitching categories is all about managing outcomes and not about seeing how many starts you can manage.

It is interesting to compare the #1 in pitching, Baseman and the #2 in Zonk. Baseman obviously manages his outcomes well with minimal innings while Zonk has managed to enjoy good success with maximum innings.

The last 2 stats that I will share are only slightly more conclusive to overall pitching success. K/BB ratio and K/9. The highlighted teams are the top 6 (actually 7 due to tie for 6th place) in the Pitching Roto Standings.



Pretty amazing to see TFP leading both of these lists. Having experienced 1st had his K to BB splits it is no wonder he is in the top 6 in Pitching Roto. He has almost reached the magical # of 9 K's per 9 innings.

My expert analysis.......


I am convinced that nothing can replace day to day managing of your pitching stats. There is no "one size fits all", that I can see, to pitching success. For best results though, I think you need to maintain around a 55% win rate, maintain a 2.7:1 K:BB ratio and achieve at least 7.5 K/9 ratio. Anything under those #'s will find you scrambling each week to gain wins in the pitching categories.

I would be interested in anyone else's interpretation of these #'s and maybe whether they are even relevant at all.