The Royals offense is bad because it doesn't hit what it should and the Royals is pitching is bad because teams take advantage of them, though there might be hope there.
Nice analysis David! Man, it is a struggle to listen to Ryan and Rex right now. I had the game on silent in the background last night because I can’t stand listening to “how hard these guys are hitting the ball”. I….do…..not….care….. lol. They have the worst run differential in the American League so I don’t care how hard you are hitting the ball right now. I know they have to have positive things to say about the team as it is the job. I get it, but man it is hard to listen to. Those two desperately need a good game to talk about as well!
Thank you for pulling the numbers on this, it is something I have been noticing as well. I thought the pitching numbers would be worse because I keep telling people that "all of our mistakes are tagged, meanwhile we never take advantage of the other pitchers' mistakes." Maybe I need to walk that back a little. Or maybe I have been noticing it on fastballs and have been rationalizing away the breaking stuff because it might have at least thrown off the batter's timing (especially Grienke's slow curve). I don't know, either way it is frustrating. As a side note, the broadcast continuing to note that someone "just missed it" or "has been unlucky this year" is starting to wear very thin.
Great article. You do really good analysis. I often wonder if the club has the same information as you do. And if they do are they working on fixing the issues? Hopefully they do end up averaging out and we can go on a little winning streak soon. Because being 20 games out of 1st before June is not gonna be a fun summer.
I wonder how much of the pitching stats you cited are due to what the pitchers are doing versus what the hitters are doing. What I mean is, when looking at the Royals offense, you (correctly, I think) focused on what they did when the opposing pitcher gave them a meatball. It seems to me that to a large extent, the variance from pitcher to pitcher is going to be noise based on who happened to make a mistake to Aaron Judge versus who made a mistake versus Kyle Higashioka. More relevant to me is the stat that you quoted in the next-to-last paragraph: "Yes they’ve been hit hard, but they’re tied for the ninth-lowest percentage of their pitches going over the heart of the plate." In other words, I don't care if you give up 1.000 SLG on middle-middle pitches if you've only thrown 3 of them all year.
Sure, some pitchers (i.e., the guys with sick stuff or who move the ball around enough to keep the hitter guessing) can survive in the middle of the zone a lot better than others, but it's better to not take your chances at all.
Nice analysis David! Man, it is a struggle to listen to Ryan and Rex right now. I had the game on silent in the background last night because I can’t stand listening to “how hard these guys are hitting the ball”. I….do…..not….care….. lol. They have the worst run differential in the American League so I don’t care how hard you are hitting the ball right now. I know they have to have positive things to say about the team as it is the job. I get it, but man it is hard to listen to. Those two desperately need a good game to talk about as well!
Thank you for pulling the numbers on this, it is something I have been noticing as well. I thought the pitching numbers would be worse because I keep telling people that "all of our mistakes are tagged, meanwhile we never take advantage of the other pitchers' mistakes." Maybe I need to walk that back a little. Or maybe I have been noticing it on fastballs and have been rationalizing away the breaking stuff because it might have at least thrown off the batter's timing (especially Grienke's slow curve). I don't know, either way it is frustrating. As a side note, the broadcast continuing to note that someone "just missed it" or "has been unlucky this year" is starting to wear very thin.
Great article. You do really good analysis. I often wonder if the club has the same information as you do. And if they do are they working on fixing the issues? Hopefully they do end up averaging out and we can go on a little winning streak soon. Because being 20 games out of 1st before June is not gonna be a fun summer.
This is kind of like how nothing else matters in basketball if you miss layups and free throws.
I wonder how much of the pitching stats you cited are due to what the pitchers are doing versus what the hitters are doing. What I mean is, when looking at the Royals offense, you (correctly, I think) focused on what they did when the opposing pitcher gave them a meatball. It seems to me that to a large extent, the variance from pitcher to pitcher is going to be noise based on who happened to make a mistake to Aaron Judge versus who made a mistake versus Kyle Higashioka. More relevant to me is the stat that you quoted in the next-to-last paragraph: "Yes they’ve been hit hard, but they’re tied for the ninth-lowest percentage of their pitches going over the heart of the plate." In other words, I don't care if you give up 1.000 SLG on middle-middle pitches if you've only thrown 3 of them all year.
Sure, some pitchers (i.e., the guys with sick stuff or who move the ball around enough to keep the hitter guessing) can survive in the middle of the zone a lot better than others, but it's better to not take your chances at all.