MLB Daily Notes - April 8
A daily automated report of what happened yesterday in Major League Baseball, along with other recent trends and further analysis
The Daily Notes are the flagship resource of MLB Data Warehouse. Every morning, Jon breaks down the current goings on in the fantasy baseball world, and an automated daily report gets you up to date on key stats and trends. Become a paid subscriber at MLB Data Warehouse to get this unlocked in your inbox every morning!
Is Jacob Misiorowski the toughest pitcher in the league to get a ball in play against?
He’s way over there on the right about halfway up the plot. That means he has a high strike rate and a pretty high ball rate. My stuff breaks every pitch into three outcomes:
Strike
Ball
BIP (ball in play)
If you’re looking at Strike% on FanGraphs or elsewhere, they are counting balls in play as strikes. Which is wrong, in my opinion, but that’s why my strike rates will be way lower. A ball in play isn’t a strike, why would we count it as a strike?
Misiorowski has 28 strikeouts and nine walks through three outings. That’s a 42% K% and a 13% BB%. That means more than half of the hitters he’s facing aren’t putting a ball in play.
I imagine he ends up around a 33% K% and an 11% BB%, but I’m confident he’ll be above a 40% K% + BB%, which makes him a very unique pitcher. I think it will be pretty good for his ERA, but probably not so great for his WHIP. But then again, he might allow like three hits per game to make up for the walks, and the WHIP might be fine. He’s given up two homers already for a 1.10 HR/9. I kinda think the dude is going to end up around a 1.0 HR/9 just because his fastball is so hard to hit.
All things considered, Misiorowski is a fantasy pitcher you want to have.
Here’s the SP data for the names I was paying the most attention to yesterday (leaving out the studs whose fantasy value is well known):
Taj Bradley looks like the early-season breakout guy to have. He has a 1.08 ERA with a 1.08 WHIP, a 31% K%, and a 6% BB% so far. That’s a phenomenal start to the year. The matchups have been decent against the Orioles, Royals, and Tigers. But a 22:4 K:BB with a 13.5% SwStr%, a 35.5% Ball%, and a .285 xwOBA are really nice to see.
Subscribe today to get the rest of these daily notes and a ton more stuff going on this year at MLB Data Warehouse