Thursday, August 13, 2009

Who's the Boom King?

3 innings, 3 strike outs, 3 ground balls, 1 hit and a .343 WPA? You knew this was coming, here we go.


You may have known this post was coming but you sure as shit didn't know Brandon League was going to be off his off for three consecutive innings. Even I predicted doom when he came out for the second (and of course third) inning. How the hell did Brandon League do it? He threw strikes for one. He kept the ball down and he got whiffs (the Xs in the graph). Sounds like a recipe for success.

There's some debate (in the Drunk Jays Fan comment section) regarding League's movement. Some claim he's better when he works more regularly. The numbers support it, in the second half this year anyway. His bad outing against Baltimore was his first in month (even that appearance wasn't that bad.) From Baseball Reference, here are League's OPS by days of rest:
  • No Rest (back to back) - .765
  • One Day of Rest - .877
  • Two Days of Rest - .323
  • Three Days of Rest - 891
  • Four Days of Rest - .423
  • Five/Six Days of Rest - .900/.762
Hmmm. His career numbers support here, with 2 and 4 days of rest being his best (though not as microscopic as 09). Okay, but why? Sadly that will have to wait for another day. I'm building a League EXXtreme F/X database but it's still small, I'm still dumb yet busy. For now let's just say League was so good today uhhh, because he's awesome.

3 comments:

  1. He is undoubtedly a devistating closer if only he could year in year out repeat his very simple repetoire. But for some reason it seems like he needs a lot of time each year to hit his groove...

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  2. What an epic performance yesterday afternoon.

    I'm looking forward to the League EXXtreme F/X database. And I'm also totally fine with the "he's awesome" reason for his greatness.

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  3. I think I'll be perfectly fine with League being an elite set-up man, if closer isn't in the cards. His stuff is too good for him to be that "whatever inning a manager feels like putting him in" type pitcher.

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