Presbyterian

gtbeak

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
539
What is a BF? Why is it relevant to a pitchers performance?
BF = Batters Faced. In the case of Dawson Brown last night it's relevance is that he struck out 7 of 9 hitters faced, needing only 37 pitches to do so, which is extremely good!

In general, batters faced main relevance comes into play when the number goes above multiples of 9. IOW, anything 1-9 is roughly equivalent and pitches thrown is the most important number to look at as it applies to availability for near future games. Similarly 10-18 is roughly equivalent, but digging deeper you can look to see if a pitcher pitches well the first time through the order (batters faced 1-9) and then falters the 2nd time through. See Tate McKee for an example on our team of that issue. It usually means the pitcher is still learning how to pitch and not just throw, and only has developed one way to get hitters out. Thus the 2nd time through the hitters take what they learned from the first AB and do more damage the 2nd time. When batters faced goes above 18, that is where the real debate begins. There is a newish stream of thought in the analytics community that says only extraordinary pitchers should ever face more than 18 batters, even if they have had great results for the first 18 batters. This is more at the major league level, I'm not sure college hitters are developed enough to learn from those first two PAs to the point where they do more damage the 3rd PA, but maybe some are. If you remember in the 2020 World Series Game 6, Blake Snell was removed after 18 batters even though he had a shutout going and the results backfired, costing Tampa the game and a shot in Game7 to win the series.
 

TampaBuzz

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,241
BF = Batters Faced. In the case of Dawson Brown last night it's relevance is that he struck out 7 of 9 hitters faced, needing only 37 pitches to do so, which is extremely good!

In general, batters faced main relevance comes into play when the number goes above multiples of 9. IOW, anything 1-9 is roughly equivalent and pitches thrown is the most important number to look at as it applies to availability for near future games. Similarly 10-18 is roughly equivalent, but digging deeper you can look to see if a pitcher pitches well the first time through the order (batters faced 1-9) and then falters the 2nd time through. See Tate McKee for an example on our team of that issue. It usually means the pitcher is still learning how to pitch and not just throw, and only has developed one way to get hitters out. Thus the 2nd time through the hitters take what they learned from the first AB and do more damage the 2nd time. When batters faced goes above 18, that is where the real debate begins. There is a newish stream of thought in the analytics community that says only extraordinary pitchers should ever face more than 18 batters, even if they have had great results for the first 18 batters. This is more at the major league level, I'm not sure college hitters are developed enough to learn from those first two PAs to the point where they do more damage the 3rd PA, but maybe some are. If you remember in the 2020 World Series Game 6, Blake Snell was removed after 18 batters even though he had a shutout going and the results backfired, costing Tampa the game and a shot in Game7 to win the series.
Thank you for the explanation. I gotta admit...it seems like a superfluous stat. The combination of innings/hits/walks/Ks tells the tale. I guess the combo might miss an error or a wild pitch/past ball on a strike out. Living down here in Tampa....we were pissed at the manager for that decision!
 

gtbeak

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
539
Thank you for the explanation. I gotta admit...it seems like a superfluous stat. The combination of innings/hits/walks/Ks tells the tale. I guess the combo might miss an error or a wild pitch/past ball on a strike out. Living down here in Tampa....we were pissed at the manager for that decision!
I figured that might be the case. I took a guess based on your handle that you would be familiar with that example. There are others, but that is the most prevalent.
 

ibeattetris

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,606
Thank you for the explanation. I gotta admit...it seems like a superfluous stat. The combination of innings/hits/walks/Ks tells the tale. I guess the combo might miss an error or a wild pitch/past ball on a strike out. Living down here in Tampa....we were pissed at the manager for that decision!
The same can be said for showing a batter’s plate appearance. You “could” just add the at bats to the walks, sacrifices etc. But why force someone to calculate things when you can just give it to them.
 

stinger78

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,919
BF = Batters Faced. In the case of Dawson Brown last night it's relevance is that he struck out 7 of 9 hitters faced, needing only 37 pitches to do so, which is extremely good!

In general, batters faced main relevance comes into play when the number goes above multiples of 9. IOW, anything 1-9 is roughly equivalent and pitches thrown is the most important number to look at as it applies to availability for near future games. Similarly 10-18 is roughly equivalent, but digging deeper you can look to see if a pitcher pitches well the first time through the order (batters faced 1-9) and then falters the 2nd time through. See Tate McKee for an example on our team of that issue. It usually means the pitcher is still learning how to pitch and not just throw, and only has developed one way to get hitters out. Thus the 2nd time through the hitters take what they learned from the first AB and do more damage the 2nd time. When batters faced goes above 18, that is where the real debate begins. There is a newish stream of thought in the analytics community that says only extraordinary pitchers should ever face more than 18 batters, even if they have had great results for the first 18 batters. This is more at the major league level, I'm not sure college hitters are developed enough to learn from those first two PAs to the point where they do more damage the 3rd PA, but maybe some are. If you remember in the 2020 World Series Game 6, Blake Snell was removed after 18 batters even though he had a shutout going and the results backfired, costing Tampa the game and a shot in Game7 to win the series.
So he pitched 3 innings and threw 37 pitches with 7 Ks? That’s outstanding! Considering about 17 pitches per inning is a good inning, that’s 51 pitches in 3 IP. Also, considering that a 3-pitch K with 9 batters would be 27 pitches, he was 10 pitches over that across 3 IP, or about 3 pitches per inning. Amazing outing for him!
 

GT33

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,275
So he pitched 3 innings and threw 37 pitches with 7 Ks? That’s outstanding! Considering about 17 pitches per inning is a good inning, that’s 51 pitches in 3 IP. Also, considering that a 3-pitch K with 9 batters would be 27 pitches, he was 10 pitches over that across 3 IP, or about 3 pitches per inning. Amazing outing for him!
We've been waiting forever for him to pitch well. Maybe the light finally came on?
 
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