Hitting for the Cycle #29
A Sunday Review - September 11, 2022
The Pitcher List centric Hitting for the Cycle edition. Sharing one of the best sites I go to for starting pitcher analysis and rankings that I use throughout the season.
📖 What I’m Reading:
The List 9/5: Ranking Every SP ROS Based On Expected Schedules – Nick Pollack
I know this article from Nick Pollack came out last week, but it’s still very relevant. The List focuses on rest of season starting pitcher rankings from Nick for every single team based on strength of schedule/match-up as well as updated commentary for each expected SP. It’s quite an undertaking, and with all things nothing is perfect, so don’t just take the list on face value. Nick points this out in his notes section that there is an expectation that much of this can and will change, especially with injured pitchers trying to make one or two starts to finish the season. So, dive in, and see what Nick says about what SPs can help or which ones to avoid in order to finish strong in your leagues.
🎧 What I’m Hearing:
On The Corner Podcast - Episode 340: The Best SP to Pickup in September
I would call this podcast the companion piece to Nick’s article above. As with every week from the On The Corner Podcast, Alex Fast goes through Nick's top 100 SP rankings with this episode focused more on rest of season SP planning. Nick comes up with a creative way to label each team’s rotation by soda brand, and Alex adds some of his own commentary to those brand labels as well. Fun episode and some good laughs. I have marked the time code for each team rotation Nick and Alex discussed along with their soda brands below. Enjoy!
📊 Metric of the Week:
CSW
Called-Strikes Plus Swinging Strike rate (CSW) is a metric developed by Nick and Alex. CSW is calculated by taking called strikes plus whiffs divided by total pitches. CSW has proven to be both a predictive and descriptive measure of a pitcher’s true skill with a strong correlation to a pitcher’s SIERA and K%. The 2022 CSW MLB average for starting pitchers is currently at 27.9% Generally, a CSW% over 30% for a starting pitcher is considered above-average with anything north of 35% as elite. You can take a look at the 2022 CSW starting pitching leaderboards at the PitcherList website HERE (just sort the last column).
💬 Quote of the Week:
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
— Vince Lombardi