Quote:
Originally Posted by DonMattingly
Has anyone kept track of how often pitchers throw their "bad" pitches?
Let's say you have Pitcher A who has only two pitches but that are both very strong. And Pitcher B has two strong pitches but also has one weak one.
How often will B throw his weak pitch? And is that possibly why A ends up with better stats than B?
And does the use of bad pitches vary between relievers and starters?
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The game doesn't work that way. It's not keeping track of what a pitcher is throwing pitch-by-pitch. (Well actually it is, but it's kind of cosmetic as far as I can tell). It considers his whole arsenal for a given plate appearance.
In your example, Pitcher B will actually be a better pitcher. Adding another pitch is almost always a net benefit, even if it's a bad pitch.
Based on my testing (which is not akin to saying I know the source code or anything, so not infallible)... I can only think of 2 scenarios where adding another pitch (even a very poor one) is a negative:
1. Adding a Fastball to a Knuckleballer's arsenal is not good as it takes away the BABIP bonus.
2. A pitcher with absolutely maximum Stuff and several great pitches... adding a pitch that slightly decreases MOV and CON like a Cutter would be a slight negative.