May 19, 2019

Signature Significance

Shane Beiber should be on your radar now. The Indians starter shutout the Baltimore Orioles, striking out 15 and walking none. Bill James pointed out the implication of this type of performance back in his 1985 Abstract:


It seems strange to say, then, that there are separations of data in baseball that are more significant than baseball men think they are.  But in certain relatively rare cases of extreme performance, significant separations in data can occur in surprisingly small samples, including one game.  A perfect example would be the game in which Roger Clemens struck out 15 batters without walking anyone.  That game, in and of itself, presents credible, or “significant” evidence that Clemens is a pitcher of some quality.  Why?  Because a poor pitcher never (almost literally never) has such a game.

BillJamesOnline.com

Bieber’s main problem early in his career is giving up home runs. With few walks and a lot of strikeouts, most of those may wind up as solo shots.

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