Do Pitchers Get Better Year With Experience

[Lagrangejacket]

Neat. Possible to do averages / trendlines? Like for players 2016 to 2017 with data, 2017 to 2018 with data and finally 2016 to 2018 with data?

Also if add in IP, will show how much Hall / Howell trusted the player to come in. Some will be deceiving, like Datoc, who did well until they didn't and blew up their averages.

Also, averages are very misleading here. For example, the average's pitcher's stats changed as follows from 2017 to 2018 (guys who pitched 5.0 IP+ in both years):

BAA: + .010
ERA: -0.18
WHIP: -0.06

This, on the surface isn't so bad- it looks like at least we didn't regress. However, if you take Connor Thomas out of it:

BAA: +.025
ERA: +0.60
WHIP + 0.08

That ERA number, in particular, is atrocious. Of course, that doesn't tell the whole story either, since you use your better pitchers more - Connor Thomas was pitching a lot more innings than the guys who regressed. My basic takeaway from the stats and years of watching GT baseball is that we usually have 1-2 guys who improve a lot, and the rest regress, sometimes badly.

 

[MWBATL]

My basic takeaway from the stats and years of watching GT baseball is that we usually have 1-2 guys who improve a lot, and the rest regress, sometimes badly.

I think that is my conclusion as well. I would slightly modify it to be only 1-2 guys improve noticeably each year, a few guys (probably 1-2) regress noticeably, and most do "about the same". It is harder to judge the "about the same" group because they often just don't get many innings so one bad outing can make their whole year look different.

It does belie the idea that we'll be better next year simply because we'll be more experienced. At least for the pitchers....

 

[65Jacket]

The guys who really dedicate themselves are the ones who improve.